The Bangladeshi government is planning to purchase planes from Airbus to bolster the national flag carrier’s fleet. Biman Bangladesh Airlines currently has 21 modern aircraft, including four Boeing 777-300 ER, four Boeing 787-8, two Boeing 787-9, six Boeing 737-800, and five De Havilland Canada DHC-8 Q400. The Minister for Civil Aviation, M Mahbub Ali, revealed details of the purchase while at the first-ever Bangladesh Aviation Summit on March 22, 2023.
The event was being held in conjunction with the British and French civil aviation organizations. According to the Bangladeshi publication, The Daily Star, Ali said: “We definitely have plans to buy aircraft from Airbus to increase the size of Biman’s fleet and we are working on it.” Shafiul Azim, the managing director and CEO of Biman, also confirmed that the discussion with Airbus was ongoing.
“If it helps meet our requirements, then why not?” the CEO added about buying aircraft from Airbus. Bangladesh has a growing aviation industry with the number of passengers increasing year after year. According to The Daily Star aviation in Bangladesh is expected to almost triple over the next 15 years. By 2035 there could be as many as 16 million air passengers in the country, up from eight million currently.
“In this era of globalization, it is not possible to achieve the desired goal of development alone in a high-tech industry like aviation as this requires the exchange of technology, research, and services,” Ali said. He added: “The UK and France, whose cooperation we received earlier, are interested to support our aviation industry. So, I hope to see them in the future to help develop our aviation.”