Under code sharing agreement (CSA), Biman Bangladesh Airlines is planning to reach the west coast of the United States and Indonesia, Australia with the help of other carriers via Japan, as the national flag carrier is set to resume its Dhaka-Narita route from September 1.
Biman’s Managing Director and CEO Shafiul Azim said this during a press conference held at Balaka Bhaban in the capital on Sunday.
He said, “We had a successful meeting with Japanese delegates last week during their two days visit. As per the meeting decision, we will start our marketing activity for Narita from June and we will fly to Narita from September 1. We will operate three flights a week.”
Code sharing is a marketing arrangement in which an airline places its designator code on a flight operated by another airline, and sells tickets for that flight. Airlines throughout the world continue to form code-share arrangements to strengthen or expand their market presence and competitive ability.
As Tokyo has allowed Biman Bangladesh Airlines to enjoy a fifth freedom facility the Biman’s chief is optimistic that this will help Biman to be more competitive in the market.
On the other hand, under code sharing agreement with the Golf Air, Biman is also looking forward to expand its business in other European countries. That is, using biman’s boarding card, passenger will be able to travel different EU destinations via a third carrier from a certain destination.
The Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) has been engaged with the US's Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) for a long time to upgrade Bangladesh's status to "category 1" so that the local carriers, including Biman Bangladesh airlines, can operate flights to different destinations in the US.
To resume operation in different destination biman will need more freight and Pilots in the coming days. Hence, different renowned companies are giving proposal to Biman and at the same time the national flag carrier is making a deal with Garuda Indonesia to get more pilots for smooth air operation in the future.
Currently, out of 21 aircraft, Biman has 16 Boeing planes - four 777-300 ER, four 787-8, two Boeing 787-9, six 737-800 and five Dash-8 Q400 turboprops from Canadian bombardiers. Biman has plan to add more carrier to its fleet soon.