Biman not enjoying benefit from fleet commonality: Airbus

Ruling out some aviation experts' observation that having a mixed fleet would not be favourable for Biman Bangladesh Airlines, Airbus has claimed that currently, the Bangladesh flag carrier is not benefiting from fleet commonality.

"Fleet commonality is an asset when there is a commonality of system designs and technology, which is not the case with the existing Biman fleet," president and Managing Director at Airbus India and South Asia Remi Maillard told BSS recently in a written interview.

He said Biman does not enjoy any benefit of "cross-crew qualification" training for lack of a common cockpit design as its fleet consists of different versions of six Boeing 777-300 ER, four Boeing 787-8, two Boeing 787-9, six Boeing 737 and five are Dash 8-400 aircraft.

However, when the Bangladesh government showed its intention to buy planes from Airbus, some aviation experts observed that a complex fleet will add additional investment and maintenance costs to Boeing's dominated fleet of Biman to manage spare parts and to train a new set of pilots.
 
Currently, the European aircraft manufacturer Airbus, the archrival of US-based Boeing, is undergoing a negation to finalise a deal with the Bangladesh government to sell 10 wide-body A350 aircraft including two freight planes to long-time Boeing customer Biman Bangladesh Airlines.

On May last, a Joint Communique was signed in London between Lord Dominic Johnson, UK's Minister of State in the Department of Business and Trade, and Salman F. Rahman, Bangladesh Prime Minister's Private Industry and Investment Adviser, with the aim of establishing an aviation and trade partnership to develop Bangladesh's aviation sector.

Maillard claimed that the Communique includes the purchase of 10 A350 aircraft, including two A350 Freighters, from Airbus.

The Airbus regional President said that the A350 freighter has total operational commonality with its passenger version siblings so pilots can fly all variants of A350 under the same rating, saving time and money for Biman Bangladesh.

However, the Civil Aviation Chairman Air Vice Marshal M Mafidur Rahman, who is also a board member of Biman Bangladesh Airlines, recently said, the Bangladesh government will purchase aircraft from either Airbus or Boeing, whoever will offer a good deal.

Regarding the feasibility of the mixed fleet for the national flag carrier, Biman's Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Shafiul Azim said, the government would do whatever beneficiary for the state-owned airlines.

"The decision to launch several new routes, including Japan and the US, has already been made. The procurement of new planes is part of our plan," he said adding that Biman would not like to be dependent on a particular airplane manufacturer for its long-term benefit.

Regarding the aviation industry potential, Maillard said Bangladesh's locational advantage lends itself to an ideal aviation gateway between the East and West.

"(However) When we look at Bangladesh's GDP growth, population or diaspora spread across the world, we see that Bangladesh has very few direct international routes as there is practically no direct connectivity to large markets such as the US, Europe or Australia," he said.

Today, he said, foreign airlines cater to 70%of the country's international traffic while Bangladesh needs to prepare now to reclaim its rightful share of this traffic.

"Biman Bangladesh needs at least 10 more widebody jets to fuel its growth aspirations. Now is the time for it and the Airbus 350 is the aircraft for it," appealed the Airbus regional chief.
 
He claimed that the 300-410 seater category of A350-900 offers the lowest cost per seat of any large widebody as this new version of aircraft offers 25% advantage in fuel burn, operating costs and CO2 emissions compared to previous generation planes.

Maillard said the A350 aircraft can fly profitably from Dhaka to any large market in the world as it offers up to ultra-long-haul 9,700 nautical miles while fuel costs account for 40 to 50% of an airline's operating expenditure broadly.

He also noted that Airbus is currently preparing the introduction of the A330 at Bangladesh's largest private carrier US-Bangla Airlines fleet by next month.

He said Airbus also proposed to support Bangladeshi air operators for maintenance and flight operations as well as advanced air traffic management solutions for best-in-class performance and efficiency.

Airbus is already collaborating with the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Aviation and Aerospace University to meet the demand for pilots, maintenance engineers and technicians as the aviation industry grows in Bangladesh, he added.