State-owned Biman Bangladesh is planning a big aircraft order, which hints at some significant expansion plans.
In this post:
Biman Bangladesh plans to add Airbus A350 to fleet
Reuters reports that Biman Bangladesh is planning on placing an order for 10 Airbus A350s shortly. Mahbub Ali, Bangladesh’s junior minister for civil aviation, shared this news, adding the following:
“As per our requirement, the decision has been taken to purchase 10 aircraft in phases. The technical committee is assessing now.”
There had been rumors of Biman Bangladesh placing an A350 order for quite some time. While the order hasn’t been finalized, it’s expected that this will happen in the near future. With the Paris Air Show this week, it’s not clear if the order will be announced during the event, or at a later point.
Regardless, it sounds like the country is serious about acquiring the A350 for its national carrier. It remains to be seen with what timeline these planes will be delivered, and whether the airline will go with the A350-900 or A350-1000.
Biman Bangladesh currently has an all-Boeing jet fleet. Therefore I find Ali’s explanation of the choice to go with Airbus to be interesting:
“Every country has both Airbus and Boeing in their fleet. We didn’t have an Airbus in our fleet.”
Is the airline going with the Airbus A350 because it made the most sense for the airline (in terms of price, range, capacity, etc.), or because… airlines from other countries have both Airbus and Boeing planes?
How the A350 fits into Biman Bangladesh’s fleet
For context on Biman Bangladesh’s fleet, the airline currently has 21 aircraft, including six Boeing 737s, four Boeing 777s, six Boeing 787s, and five De Havilland Dash 8s. So when these planes join the carrier’s fleet, they’ll be the only Airbus jets.
As you can see, the airline currently has 10 wide body aircraft, and it sounds like the airline plans to order 10 more wide body aircraft. Biman Bangladesh’s wide body fleet is quite young — the 777s are an average of just 10 years old, while the 787s are an average of just four years old.
Presumably Biman Bangladesh won’t be retiring 787s in the coming years. It’s anyone’s guess whether 777s are retired once the A350s are delivered:
- If the airline does retire 777s, the long haul fleet could go from 10 to 16 aircraft
- If the airline doesn’t retire 777s, the long haul fleet could go from 10 to 20 aircraft
No matter how you slice it, Biman Bangladesh clearly plans to significantly expand its fleet.
Biman Bangladesh currently has a fairly limited long haul route network. The airline has some routes to Europe (including to London and Manchester, from Sylhet), as well as some flights to Southeast Asia (including to Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur, from Dhaka).
Biman Bangladesh has operated a limited number of flights to Toronto, but hasn’t operated the service regularly. I imagine that route could eventually be operated consistently. Speaking of ultra long haul service, while Biman Bangladesh may want to fly to New York, that’s not currently possible, given Bangladesh’s Category 2 rating with the FAA (which prevents it from adding new service to the country).
Bottom line
While an official announcement hasn’t been made, Bangladesh is planning on purchasing 10 Airbus A350s for its national airline. I imagine we’ll learn the full details of this order soon. This should represent a significant expansion for the airline, given that the long haul fleet currently consists of six Boeing 787s and four Boeing 777s.
What do you make of Biman Bangladesh’s planned A350 order?
Initially, Biman were planning to replace its existing narrowbody aged 737-800s by A320neo or A321neo either.
In actually, Biman business strategy in not same as other airlines. Biman main money maker routes are in middle east carrying millions of workers employed in the middle east countries and Hajj pilgrimages (seasonal and regular). This where Biman management are eyeing to increase flight frequency. Recently CAA Bangladesh had an agreement with Saudi CAA that Biman will...
Initially, Biman were planning to replace its existing narrowbody aged 737-800s by A320neo or A321neo either.
In actually, Biman business strategy in not same as other airlines. Biman main money maker routes are in middle east carrying millions of workers employed in the middle east countries and Hajj pilgrimages (seasonal and regular). This where Biman management are eyeing to increase flight frequency. Recently CAA Bangladesh had an agreement with Saudi CAA that Biman will operate 50 flights per week from 21 currently. Narrow body aircrafts are not ideal Instrument for these routes and the need more wide bodies. Adding 6-8 T7 are just fine but Government of Bangladesh wants to diversify the manufacturer to keep the Balance recently issues devolved in geopolitics. Considering the government concern, Aligned with Airbus is a wise decision.
Correction Lucky! Biman does operate 2 or 3x weekly scheduled flights to Toronto and back. However, flights to YYZ have a technical stop at IST. Return flight to DAC is non-stop though.
The problem with most of these smaller airlines is they have no credit card or airline partners and even so they are usually not cheap - more expensive than other options.
With the new international terminal opening at Dhaka Airport, Biman is poised for growth and wouldn't be surprised if the FAA category changes after the terminal opens either late this year but most probably next year.
The A350s are part of complete package to develop the aerospace industry of Bangladesh. The ministers agreed in England not only to buy the planes, but also get support for establish crew training facilities including flight-, cabin-, and maintenance crews. Further more the cargo business supposed to be developed also, therefor the two A350F.
Bangladesh is heavy involved in the fashion industry. There is demand for air freight. By getting a complete package solution...
The A350s are part of complete package to develop the aerospace industry of Bangladesh. The ministers agreed in England not only to buy the planes, but also get support for establish crew training facilities including flight-, cabin-, and maintenance crews. Further more the cargo business supposed to be developed also, therefor the two A350F.
Bangladesh is heavy involved in the fashion industry. There is demand for air freight. By getting a complete package solution from England the Ministers of Bangladesh try to transfer know how to improve Biman, the national airline.
I’ve gotta say, of all the small South Asian flag carriers, Biman is the most impressive in terms of new planes. SriLankan cancelled its A350 order and PIA had old 777s.
DO NOT fly Biman if you're a vlogger!
Just look at what happened to youtuber RORY DING (YT RoryDing Travels) at Dubai Airport last week when he tried boarding on his fully paid business class ticket. The word 'appalling' does not even begin to describe Biman's behaviour. If it weren't captured on film, you probably wouldn't believe it.
Most travellers on Biman from the Middle East, Saudi Arabia etc are blue collared labourers, and of course white collar jobs too. For this YouTuber to want to travel from Dubai to Dammam via Dhaka, which would otherwise take an hour would raise some eyebrows.
The Biman employee/ Manager who should have looked carefully into this without the verbal outrage and emphasis of the USD $5000 fine (as mentioned in the video) was more...
Most travellers on Biman from the Middle East, Saudi Arabia etc are blue collared labourers, and of course white collar jobs too. For this YouTuber to want to travel from Dubai to Dammam via Dhaka, which would otherwise take an hour would raise some eyebrows.
The Biman employee/ Manager who should have looked carefully into this without the verbal outrage and emphasis of the USD $5000 fine (as mentioned in the video) was more concerned about his job and repercussions should this turn out to be something illegal and having the fine imposed on the airline, because of wanting to travel the long way.
Is his behaviour justified, absolutely not, but you have to understand the mindset of the situation and the route being taken. DXB-DMM vs DXB-DAC-DMM. Airlines deny boarding all the time, this one was purely out of the strange nature of the route and the final destination involved and the supposedly pending fine imposed. Still very poorly handled.
Marco, airline vlogging has been a phenomenon for decades. Of all the people who encounter vloggers on a regular basis, it's frontline airline staff(!), like this manager. It irrelevant what the routing is! If the customer has paid (which the vlogger did) and has the correct authorizations in place (which the vlogger did), and has not been flagged (the vlogger wasn't), then this power-tripping manager cannot deny boarding. And don't get me started on his...
Marco, airline vlogging has been a phenomenon for decades. Of all the people who encounter vloggers on a regular basis, it's frontline airline staff(!), like this manager. It irrelevant what the routing is! If the customer has paid (which the vlogger did) and has the correct authorizations in place (which the vlogger did), and has not been flagged (the vlogger wasn't), then this power-tripping manager cannot deny boarding. And don't get me started on his aggressive behavior!! There is no justification and excusing this, no matter how hard some try.
Was in no way justifying the duty manager's behaviour. It was where this was globally (and mind you in Dubai of all places) but the airline being operated was from Bangladesh. It might have caused concern had he to do the same on a routing DXB-MAA-DAM. The unnecessary fines involved may be the very reason for all this fiasco. t's the mindset of the airlines in that region
And vloggers might be treated as influencers...
Was in no way justifying the duty manager's behaviour. It was where this was globally (and mind you in Dubai of all places) but the airline being operated was from Bangladesh. It might have caused concern had he to do the same on a routing DXB-MAA-DAM. The unnecessary fines involved may be the very reason for all this fiasco. t's the mindset of the airlines in that region
And vloggers might be treated as influencers by their audiences but at the end of the day they are just passengers on a flight. Maybe not Sam Chui lol
Airlines from many countries including some of the big European carriers (home of Airbus) intentionally buy both Airbus and Boeing products in order to not appear to be taking sides.
Delta is one of the few very large airlines in the world to have only Airbus widebodies on order while American and United do the same with Boeing widebodies. In terms of total numbers of aircraft, American is the largest Airbus operator in the...
Airlines from many countries including some of the big European carriers (home of Airbus) intentionally buy both Airbus and Boeing products in order to not appear to be taking sides.
Delta is one of the few very large airlines in the world to have only Airbus widebodies on order while American and United do the same with Boeing widebodies. In terms of total numbers of aircraft, American is the largest Airbus operator in the world but Delta will overtake them this year. There is a clear political dimension in airplane orders and US carriers probably feel more confident in their ability to justify their fleet spending decisions than in many countries.
For an airline the size of Biman, having two models of new generation widebodies will be costly, esp. if they opt for the A350-900. The -1000 is a large aircraft for a country the size of Bangladesh but it is very efficient - more so than the 777.
Either model of the A350 can pretty well serve any city in the world nonstop from Bangladesh that Biman might want to serve.
There will be lots of airplane order news coming from Paris this week so this should be a fun week to be an av fan.
@ Tim
Don't get your point on "The -1000 is a large aircraft for a country the size of Bangladesh."
Bangladesh is the 8th most populated nation in the world. Don't think they would have any problem to fill the -1000's.
Travel demand has never been directly correlated to population, not in the US or any "developed" country and is not from Bangladesh.
As has been noted, Bangladesh is a huge fashion market and Biman undoubtedly sees the opportunity to use A350-1000s which have great cargo capabilities as well as industry-leading passenger economics.
Not sure how well this will go, not sure how well (or not) the airline operates, not sure when or if I will ever fly them. Apparently Biman used to operate A310s. And apparently they did fly to New York back in the day (with different stops on the way)... using DC-10s.
For a while I only remember them being able to fly long haul with their DC-10. They were one of the last operators with passengers.
They used to have A310's in their fleet. So, Airbus is not quite new to them.
With national carriers, politics comes in when purchasing aircrafts.