Dhaka : The biggest private carrier of the country US-Bangla Airlines will be launching flights to India's Delhi and Saudi Arabia's Jeddah in Q1 2024, followed by Riyadh and Dammam by end 2024. For the network expansion purpose, the airline will be adding two new ultramodern aircraft-Airbus A330s-with 436 seat capacity each in two months.

Kamrul Islam, General Manager-Public Relations, said this while talking to The Bangladesh Monitor at his office in the capital.

The airline's expansion efforts will not end there. US-Bangla is also planning to spread its wings in Europe-the UK's London and Italy's Rome-by end 2024 or early 2025, followed by the launch of scheduled services to Canada's Toronto in 2026.

Meaning, in the next three years, the airline will be adding seven new international destinations in its network.

Furthermore, US-Bangla's expansion efforts not only comprise the launch of new international destinations but also increasing frequencies on the existing routes.

From Dhaka, the airline is now operating double daily flights to Kolkata; daily flights to Bangkok, Singapore, Sharjah and Chennai respectively; 10 weekly to Dubai and Kuala Lumpur each; five weekly to Guangzhou and four weekly to Male. US-Bangla also operates daily flights from Chattogram to Kolkata.

The airline is also planning to increase frequency on Dhaka-Male route to daily in the coming days, subject to labour traffic demand, he further informed.

For such massive expansion efforts, there was no alternative to adding more aircraft to the fleet, said Kamrul Islam.

Hence, the airline added a new Boeing 737-800 and two new ATR 72-600s to its fleet. With the new additions, the total number of aircraft in US-Bangla's fleet currently stands at 20: eight Boeing 737-800s, nine ATR 72-600s and three Dash 8Q-400s.

It is no mean feat that a private carrier in Bangladesh crossed 10 years of commercial operations successfully, claimed Kamrul Islam. After a decade since inception, with a network of 11 international destinations and 20 aircraft at present, it is commendable that the airline continues its efforts to grow, he also said.

Another achievement of US-Bangla in 2023, Kamrul Islam mentioned, was the fact it secured ISO certification as well as bagged a top regional airline award at an international award ceremony.

Speaking about domestic operations, Kamrul Islam mentioned the airline had to suspend Dhaka-Barishal flights temporarily, as road connectivity development (Padma Bridge) reduced the number of air travellers on the route.

The airline also reduced frequencies on Dhaka-Jashore route, however, increased flights to Saidpur (eight daily flights currently) and Cox's Bazar (nine daily flights). US-Bangla even operates two Boeing 737-800s on Dhaka-Cox's Bazar route daily following great demand of the country's popular beach destination among leisure travellers.

Lastly, Kamrul Islam urged the government to facilitate and subsidise the local carriers so that they can grab the international market from the foreign carriers and contribute further to the nation's GDP. This way, passengers will get to enjoy more competitive fares as well, concluded the GM-PR.