Biman Bangladesh Airlines

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Biman Bangladesh Airlines is the flag carrier of Bangladesh, with its main hub at Zia International Airport in Dhaka, the capital of the country. It also operates flights from Shah Amanat International Airport in Chittagong and earns revenue from the connecting service to Osmani International Airport in Sylhet. It provides passenger and cargo service in different international routes in Asia and Europe along with major domestic routes. It has Air Service Agreements with 42 countries, but maintains flights to only 18. Until July 2007 the airline was wholly owned and managed by the Government of Bangladesh; on 23 July 2007, it was transformed into Bangladesh's largest Public Limited Company by the Caretaker Government of Bangladesh.^[5]

Created in February 1972 Biman enjoyed an internal monopoly in the Bangladesh aviation industry until 1996.^[6] In the decades following its founding, the airline expanded both its fleet and its destinations (at its peak Biman operated flights to 29 international destinations as far away as New York – John F. Kennedy International Airport (New York City) in the west and Tokyo – Narita in the east), but suffered heavily owing to corruption and mishaps. The major reason behind the airline's huge financial loss and reputation for poor service and regular flight cancellations/delays is its ageing fleet, with some of its long-haul aircraft banned for safety reasons by the aviation authority of the US and EU countries. Annual Hajj flights, transporting non-resident Bangladeshi workers/migrants^[7] as well as Biman's subsidiaries, form an important part of the carrier's business. The rising oil price has created additional pressure on the airline, which is widely reported to have failed to meet its payment obligations to the state-owned petroleum corporation, BPC. Biman has a two-star ranking out of five by Skytrax,^[8] a United Kingdom-based consultancy. The carrier is facing competition from a number of local private airlines as well as some international carriers, which offer greater reliability and service standards, targeting the country's air transport sector which is experiencing 8% growth per annum owing to a large number of non-resident Bangladeshis.

After becoming a public limited company, Biman has trimmed the number of staff and turned its attention to modernising the fleet. Biman made a deal with US aircraft manufacturer Boeing for procurement of 10 new generation aircraft along with options/purchase rights for another 10. The carrier is in the process of leasing some aircraft for the interim period to re-start flights to some of the destinations in Asia, Europe and North America.