Biman suspends domestic flights till Nov 29

Dhaka, Sep 19
Biman Bangladesh Airlines has suspended all its domestic flights till November 29 in a bid to keep international flight schedules normal.
The national flag carrier's flight suspension order has been continuing since September 17, a flight control official seeking anonymity told The Daily Star on Wednesday.
Only two aircrafts were used for four destinations in domestic routes. Now the aircrafts have been added to international fleet of the national carrier.
With the cancellation of all domestic flights by Biman, the entire domestic flight network is now being run by two private airlines.
Meanwhile, considering the sufferings of passengers who are scheduled to board on international flights from Sylhet or Chittagong, a special arrangement will be made, the official said.
However, there will be no disruption in hajj flights as the authorities have already allotted several aircrafts to fly the pilgrims to Saudi Arabia.
On Monday, Biman started its hajj flights for this year.
With the inclusion of the two domestic aircrafts, Biman’s number of total international aircrafts stands at three with a capacity of 702 passengers.
At present, private airline United Airlines has been running 10 domestic flights daily while Regent Airways six in 10 destinations across the country.
Earlier, the schedule of Biman collapsed as a leased Boeing 747 left the airliner on September 12, eight days ahead of the scheduled end of the lease. The aircraft had a passenger capacity of 505.
The situation worsened as a Boeing 777-300ER was grounded for 15 hours on Sunday after a bird hit its engine while the aircraft was landing at Shahjalal International Airport, said Biman sources.
An airbus which was supposed to join Biman's fleet on September 15 after overhauling in Singapore did not arrive.
The airline could not even put a DC 10 aircraft in service after repairs in due time.
Earlier, Biman sources said it will face backlog of around 4,000 passengers by September 25. The cancellation is set to cause a loss of nearly Tk 20 crore.