Biman soars on high travel demand

National flag carrier Biman Bangladesh Airlines has seen an uptick in business as passenger levels crossed the pre-pandemic level.

In the three months from July to September, Biman carried 8 lakh passengers, its highest in the last five years, the carrier said.

At a press conference on Thursday at its headquarters, the Biman authorities said high travel demand had resulted in the airlines earning Tk1,563 crore in just three months.

Biman also improved its ground handling service by bringing down luggage delivery time to a maximum of 45 minutes in line with the international standard.

Md Zahid Hossain, who joined Biman three months back as managing director, said his target was to improve business and service.

The national flag carrier also increased its flight frequency in the face of the rising travel demand, boosting its coffers.

Zahid said they are expanding Biman's passenger carrying capacity by increasing recruitment and purchasing ground handling equipment to meet booming global air travel demand.

He said Biman would be able to carry 30 lakh passengers by this year.

The current 17,000 flights will also be increased to 25,000 by November, the MD said, adding that the plan was to increase flight frequency on existing routes instead of introducing new ones.

At present, Biman has been unable to fully utilise its fleet capacity due to pilot shortage.

For instance, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner has the capacity to be in operation for 15 to 16 hours but Biman has been able to use it for 11 to 12 hours.

Biman was already looking to recruit pilots and has called for applications, the top executive said.

Currently, Biman has six modern 787 aircraft.

The airlines also achieved the International Aviation Safety Assessment programme, or IASA certification, due to its safety management, said Zahid.

International air traffic experienced a strong recovery with a 115.6% rise in August compared to the same month of the last year, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

"Demand for air travel remains strong. After two years of lockdowns and border restrictions people are taking advantage of the freedom to travel wherever they can," said Willie Walsh, IATA's director general.

Industry revenues are expected to reach $782 billion, 93.3% of 2019 levels. Flights operated in 2022 are expected to total 33.8 million, which is 86.9% of 2019 levels.

Scheduled passenger numbers are expected to reach 3.8 billion, with revenue passenger kilometres growing 97.6% compared with 2021, reaching 82.4% of 2019 traffic.