Presenting a new Biman

Air Commodore Muhammad Zakiul Islam ndu acsc (Retd)

IN my last write-up, I urged upon all our patrons to be passionate and understand the national flag carrier - Biman Bangladesh Airlines Limited or Biman, as we so fondly call it . Most welcomed the appeal, but dissensions, we had few. Some saw my attempt as "irksome" and "annoying". I take the comments with utmost respect and full humility; because I believe that every one is entitled to his own freedom of speech and opinion.

The airline has charted on a new course. Agreements for new and new- generation aircraft were signed last year. As per the plan, four 777-300ER aircraft were to be added to the fleet in 2013. Happily enough, Boeing has offered to accelerate the delivery of the first two aircraft by two years. In other words, if everything goes as per the plan, we should have the first two birds by the end of 2011.

Obviously, arrangement of finance for such a costly endeavour is challenging. But thanks to the wisdom and generous patronage of the central bank and exemplary initiative of some of the very enterprising local bankers, we will soon pull the money for pre-delivery payment of the aircraft from domestic sources and under most favourable terms and conditions. Might I say that this would also set a new trend of financing of large commercial ventures in Bangladesh.

But a bird in hand is worth two in the bush, so the saying goes. The airline has made interim plans for procuring aircraft on lease to add to the present size. Biman has definitive plans for adding five more aircraft within the next few months to augment its fleet. These would consist of long haul aircraft for flights to inter-continental destinations and also the mid-haul and short haul ones to serve mid-haul and regional routes. The arrangement would also help the airline in reopening some of its stations which were suspended due to non-availability of aircraft and reduced traffic, and vice versa; an unhappy synergy, so to say.

Being small is sometime beautiful. Luckily, being primarily a domestic and regional carrier, Biman has not been affected by the world class recession that one hears now a days being suffered by world class airlines. The domestic market is growing and almost all the airlines serving Bangladesh are increasing their frequencies and opening new destinations. Unfortunately, we are unable to reap the benefit of this increased volume due to shortage of capacity.

As I tried to explain in my last attempt, Biman enjoys much public interest and curiosity and, in fact, finds no difficulty in retention of the same. The media, both print and electronic, generously allocates enough interest, space and time in reporting on our failures and achievements; of the latter, we have few. Reasons are not far to seek. An ageing fleet presents compounding problem: aircraft not having enough dispatch reliability, unusual turn-around time resulting in schedule irregularity and consequential erosion of confidence of the passengers.

But this is not to suggest that there is any compromise on safety nor are there any attempts to cut corners in meeting the departure schedule. A few weeks ago, a local daily carried the news of a travel advice issued by an international agency to its employees. If the reason and rationale for such advice was prompted by their concern for punctuality, we have nothing much to add. But if it is born out of a concern for safety, then we definitely question such wisdom. Every life is important to us, equally. Perhaps it will not be out of place to share with the readers that this particular international agency is known for chartering obsolete flying machines from some obscure sources resulting in some of the worst air disaster in the past. Only a few years ago, we, in Bangladesh, had to count untimely death of a more than a dozen of our young service man who were coming home from a mission.

A new Biman is in the offing: with new aircraft, new livery, newer destinations and renewed pledge for serving our valued customer. In our bid to revamp and reshape the airline, all of us in the airline would have to remodel our own thoughts and our mindset.

Now, this is an abstract proposition. While changes in the material and physical aspect of a complex commercial operation can be planned, timed and executed with physical follow-up of the results, change of mind and behaviourial pattern are something of a metamorphosis. It takes time and it takes willingness. But we will be there.

The writer is the MD & CEO of Biman. He can be reached at mdbiman@bdbiman.com1