BSEC offers Biman funds to acquire new aircraft

Dhaka : Bangladesh Securities Exchange Commission (BSEC) has offered Biman Bangladesh Airlines necessary funding to acquire new planes that the latter seeks for further expansion of routes and frequencies. 

BSEC has offered to issue foreign bonds to fund Biman Bangla-desh Airlines for new plane acquisition, said the former's Chairman Professor Shibli Rubayat-Ul-Islam to The Bangladesh Monitor on April 23.

To this effect, BSEC has sent proposals to both the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism as well as Biman Bangladesh Airlines, added Professor Shibli.

Earlier, on April 22, Biman's Managing Director and CEO Shafiul Azim informed that the airline eyes to add four new widebody aircraft to its fleet by 2025.

Biman seeks to expand its network through deploying new aircraft on new routes, informed Shafiul Azim talking to The Bangladesh Monitor. 

Sydney, Uzbekistan, Kunming, Korea and Vietnam are some of the potential destinations, Shafiul Azim expressed which Biman plans to add to its network. 

Biman recently launched flights to Narita in Japan which is performing very well, said Shafiul Azim, adding, Dhaka to Vietnam/Korea via Narita is a promising route that Biman is currently eyeing.  

The national airline is also planning to fly to Sydney via Singapore/Bali, according to its MD and CEO. 

Besides Narita, over the past two years, Biman launched flights to Canada's Toronto, China's Guangzhou and Italy's Rome.

As of now, Biman operates flights on 22 international routes covering three continents-North America, Europe and Asia-with a 21 aircraft fleet, dominated by Boeing. 

However, there is a possibility to move towards fleet diversification for Biman as the airline is currently assessing proposals from both Airbus and Boeing for acquiring new aircraft.