?If Bangladesh Biman authority fails to improve the condition, including mismanagement and irregularities, it would not be able to make profit despite addition of new aircraft,? a high official said, preferring anonymity.
Biman has also failed to come out of its viscous circle of losses because of corruption while other private airlines are counting benefit every year using the same runway.
Bangladesh Biman Airlines had to count losses of more than Tk 12 billion in the last decade, according to Bangladesh Economic Review 2011.
The new Boeing-777 (300ER), named Palki, started operation on 2 November but on its inaugural flight to London from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport with only 44 passengers against its capacity of 419 seats.
Biman should have got satisfactory passengers on the inaugural flight of the much-awaited aircraft, said the high official. ?It is the failure of Biman?s marketing department.?
Biman?s customer service Director Mazharul H Choudhury said, ?Very few people go abroad during Eid and that is why we did not get many passengers.?
But contacting the private airlines, including GMG and Emirates, it was learnt that they are still getting satisfactory number of passengers ahead of Eid-ul-Azha.
Flight delay is a common phenomenon for Biman and its newly commissioned Palki was also no exception to this; its return flight from London on 3 November was delayed for about two hours.
Osman Khan, who came to Bangladesh on that flight, said, ?I thought it will maintain Biman?s schedule but I realised I was wrong.?
A few passengers claimed that Biman?s service was not satisfactory and they did not even get responses from the cabin crews. ?Generally four cabin crews are assigned to each cabin but only two were engaged and we did not get satisfactory response from them,? said Osman.
With the commissioning of Palki, flights of Dhaka-London-Manchester route resumed after a long interval of four and a half years. The new Boeing will also fly to Rome and Milan, said Biman officials.
Biman was made the country?s largest public limited company in 2007 in order to make it profitable and viable but the airline is still incurring losses mainly because of its poor services, which include regular flight cancellations and delays caused by its ageing fleet.
Biman officials said they have agreements with 42 countries but it cannot cover all those destinations because of shortage of aircraft.
Source: daily-sun.com
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