State-owned Biman Bangladesh is planning a big aircraft order, which hints at some significant expansion plans.
Continue reading: Biman Bangladesh To Order 10 Airbus A350s
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Perhaps, they'll add a row of International First Class, so that Ben 'has to' review it...
The small Airbus fleet especially the A359 is quite intriguing. After the Boeing order i expected the airline at most to go with the A320neo family but here we are.
@Ben On a different note;
Air Senegal is wet leasing an A330neo from Air Côte d'ivoire for the DSS-CDG route. This could be a cheaper way to review the last remaining first class product you haven't been on. Atleast the hard product.
You may have missed the story where Air Senegal grounded all their International DSS based crew due to some shady business going on. Drama.
This reeks of overextension from a state owned airline run by someone who's either corrupt or has too big an ego.
I would understand wanting one of the narrowbody models and one of the widebody models but having both introduces unneeded complexity.
Agree with first sentence.
But as to the latter: aviation enthusiasts get WAY too wrapped up in "commonality" while forgetting the myriad of other factors that go into fleet acquisition and maintenance.
Having a single or few types, doesn't do you much good, if you can't get them (or develop a long term maintenance program/relationship with specific OEMs) at prices, financing, time frames, or terms most favorable to your needs.
And then there's performance. 787-10 is not doing Bangladesh-North America at all. 787-8 would have insane per-seat costs, if they tried it with that. 787-9 could do it, with payload limitations. So A350 is their best bet, for that kind of longhaul; but probably not their best bet for regional.
If you get $1M kickback for every plane you buy.
Would you rather buy 5 jets or 35 jets?
@Lucky, as someone of Bangladeshi heritage, perhaps I can shed some light into these orders:
1. I don't know how much you know about DAC but recently they built a massive, brand new terminal known as Terminal 3. Terminal 3 is awaiting soft-launch this December and most international operations of Biman are being moved there.
2. Bangladesh has a new government since February 2026 and they've been very ambitious about transforming the aviation sector and turning DAC into a regional hub.
3. The Boeing deals were made to kinda "circumvent" Trump's trade tariffs on Bangladesh and to 'balance out' the trade deficit between the US and Bangladesh (lol).
4. Airbus has been lobbying to Biman (and the government of Bangladesh) for quite sometime now, for a couple of years at least. That's why back in 2023 there were plans to order Airbus. Then came Trump's tariff wars and Biman reconsidered. But they still wanted to keep Airbus happy, so now these 10 orders (basically geopolitics).
Did their announcement say when these jets will be delivered?
I suppose *worst case* they could wet lease the fleet to, oh I don’t know, say, Air Algérie الخطوط الجوية الجزائرية.
... just a quick note:
North America does NOT just exist of the USA.
Mexico, Canada or often even Caribbean destinations are interesting too, for many reasons incl. Cargo.
YES, to most airlines the US is important, but it's not the aviation highlight when it comes to "North America".
So never forget, important yes, but not the only one.
Bangladesh has never in its history defaulted on sovereign loan repayments, and is the second largest economy in South Asia. I am content, this will materialize.