The newly delivered 787 that I’m most excited about this summer belongs to Air Tanzania, as they’ll be adding a single Boeing 787 to their fleet, which they plan to use for flights to Mumbai. You can bet I’ll be on that flight only shortly after it launches.
There’s another new 787 operator this summer that I’m pretty excited about as well. The airline has a total of four Boeing 787-8s on order, the first two of which they’re scheduled to take delivery of this year. It’s my understanding that the first one should be joining their fleet around this August.
Currently Biman’s longhaul fleet consists of six Boeing 777s (two 777-200ERs and four 777-300ERs), so this will enable quite a bit of longhaul growth from them, as I don’t believe they’re retiring their 777s.
Biman Bangladesh has angled flat beds on their 777s, so I’ve been curious to see what their new business class seat would look like. It looks like the airline has put up a webpage with some pictures of their 787. I’m a fan of Biman’s livery, and think it looks great on the 787!
Biman Bangladesh has also revealed that they’ll be using the Stelia Equinox 3D seat in business class on the 787s. They plan to have a total of 24 seats, spread across four rows in a 2-2-2 configuration.
This is the same business class seat you’ll find on airlines like Air Caraibes, Air Europa, Royal Air Maroc, etc. It’s intended to be a fairly dense configuration business class seat, and personally I don’t find it to be especially comfortable. In some configurations (like on Royal Air Maroc) the seats have an odd setup, where one seat is significantly higher than the other one in bed mode, which is just strange.
However, a fully flat bed is (almost) always better than an angled seats, so it still represents a big improvement for the airline.
Biman Bangladesh hasn’t yet announced the first route to get the new 787. My initial thought is that their London Heathrow route (which operates nonstop on the westbound sector, and via Sylhet on the eastbound sector) seems to be most likely to get the new plane first. At the same time the 787-8 will represent a capacity reduction compared to the 777-300ER they currently use. That’s probably fine, though, since I imagine flights to Dubai and Saudi Arabia are more in need of the capacity than a flight to London.
Dear Sir/Ma'am,
Can you tell me please, Seat class 'D' is ? Its bussiness class or not.
Sir, I want to about D class seat. It is inatial of bussiness class seat?
hope the 787 opens up direct Dhaka-Toronto flights until the JFK thing clears up
Yes, it will go to LHR. LHR likely to increase from four to six weekly. Additional two could be with 787-8. LHR flight always full as it is only direct flight between London-Sylhet. Two/three Manchester-Dhaka flight is also under consideration. But at first LHR is the possible route for first 787. First 787-8 will reach in August 2018 second will be in November 2018. Another two 787 will arrive in November 2019.
The 777-300ER...
Yes, it will go to LHR. LHR likely to increase from four to six weekly. Additional two could be with 787-8. LHR flight always full as it is only direct flight between London-Sylhet. Two/three Manchester-Dhaka flight is also under consideration. But at first LHR is the possible route for first 787. First 787-8 will reach in August 2018 second will be in November 2018. Another two 787 will arrive in November 2019.
The 777-300ER will not replaced by 787. 787 will be used in additional flights. As 77Ws will be busy between August to September 2018 due to Hajj flight it is likely to replace the 77W with 787 for couple of month.
The window seat is higher because then its easier for the window seat to "hop" over the aisle person. This is the same as in Malaysia Airlines' A330, I think.
This airlines reputation is so bad amongst the Bengali diaspora most other Bengali people I know will never fly them. They aren't even any cheaper anymore than the ME3 by much. The only people who use this are those Bengali's that want a direct flight to Sylhet and older generation who generally don't speak English so well so appreciate having Bengali speaking cabin crew to do deal with but even then both QR and Emirates...
This airlines reputation is so bad amongst the Bengali diaspora most other Bengali people I know will never fly them. They aren't even any cheaper anymore than the ME3 by much. The only people who use this are those Bengali's that want a direct flight to Sylhet and older generation who generally don't speak English so well so appreciate having Bengali speaking cabin crew to do deal with but even then both QR and Emirates try to schedule relevant staff on their flights to Dhaka.
@Noah Bowie +1
I thought the whole point of the 787 was to open up long, thin routes where the economics previously didn’t work? Whereas Bangladesh-UK is a thick route, ideally served by 777s.
There are historic reasons why there’s a huge amount of traffic between the UK and the Indian sub-continent (much of it VFR and admittedly low yield). Most of those “Indian” restaurants in the UK are owned and staffed by Bangladeshis.
...@Noah Bowie +1
I thought the whole point of the 787 was to open up long, thin routes where the economics previously didn’t work? Whereas Bangladesh-UK is a thick route, ideally served by 777s.
There are historic reasons why there’s a huge amount of traffic between the UK and the Indian sub-continent (much of it VFR and admittedly low yield). Most of those “Indian” restaurants in the UK are owned and staffed by Bangladeshis.
I suppose it could be an additional service on the London route. But I’d guess it wouldn’t be the only plane they used.
They won't put the 787 on the London route because that flight is almost always packed. The capacity is definitely needed to London. They might put the 787 on the London route at a different time than their current flights in order to boost capacity.
Speaking of Biman, the last two times I have flown into SGN (25 May and about a month earlier in April) there was a Biman jet here. This last time it was a 777; can't recall for sure if it was the same plane. The first time I figured they were ferrying in officials for some meeting, but now I'm thinking maintenance? Is that plausible?
@Cashcow
If you choose Air Algérie to Beijing for example, DON’T plan any connections... and stay at the Sofitel in Algiers.... with the possibility to extend your checkout...
Lucky please consider air algeria as they have one of the finest first class offerings from algiers to the world.
French cuisine at 55000 feet yes 55000 bathed in vintage krug.
You forgot to mention the free WiFi Biman will have in their 787s, including 9 live TV channels in IFE.
From the pictures it seems like the the seats will be on the same level (i.e. the foot rest will be on the same level). Just like the model Air Europa has on their 787s. While RAM has a different model of Equinox 3D seat.
Highly doubt it will be London nearly all flights to and from repacked and due to a massive 40KG luggage allowance in Economy they need the lift. Those flight generally have 400 + pax on them unless they go 2x daily on the 787 It's not London.
i think, from their 787 website photo, it shown 2 cities (dhaka and riyadh), maybe their first 787 route will be to riyadh? just guessing tho...
Upgrade for them. Not competitive but their customers may not care.
But it’s still a 2-2-2 where the one seated by the window will have to “climb” over the aisle seat guy to go to the lavatory. Not something convenient in this age of new business seats.