Chopper rental service poised for a takeoff

Privately run helicopters emerged as a means of commercial travel in the last one year with businessmen, corporate executives, foreign buyers and donors opting for chartered chopper services to visit places outside the capital to avoid huge traffic congestion and time consuming road transports.

There is hardly any week the helicopters are not being used for travelling, the operators said.

“Now we get clients almost five days a week,” said Director (operations) of Square Air Group Captain (retd) M Abu Zafar. The company has been providing service with a seven seated Bell 407 helicopter including two seats for pilots since 2010 and is expecting to add another twine engine helicopter to its fleet soon.

Full story: The Daily Star

Regent Airways will compete on a different level

Regent Airways, the newest player in country’s aviation sector, plans to compete with on time performance and providing optimised customer service and not on fares.

“The aviation cake is big enough and all three of us can have a good bite and increase our market share. The current fares are competitive,” said Mashruf Habib, Managing Director, Regent Airways.

Full story: The Bangladesh Monitor

Destiny takes over Best Air

Destiny Group has bought off 80 percent stakes in the troubled Best Air for Tk 150 crore, said a top official of the local airline yesterday.

Best Aviation Ltd, the owning company of Best Air, and Destiny, a multilevel marketing company, signed a share-transfer deal on November 11, according to M Haider Uzzaman, who now acts as the managing director for the airline.

Full story: The Daily Star

Regent Airways hits skies

Regent Airways, a venture of Chittagong-based conglomerate Habib Group, has made a foray into the aviation sector. Its maiden flights will take off Wednesday.

The company plans to become the ‘most preferred’ and ‘safest’ local airline.

Full story: The Daily Star

Biman Bangladesh Airlines pilots go on strike

Image via Wikipedia

Biman Bangladesh Airlines Limited has suspended five pilots, prompting their colleagues to go on strike from Tuesday night that has caused most of its aircraft grounded, the national flag carrier’s pilot said Wednesday.

Full story: People Daily Online

United Airways adds A310-300 and ATR-72 to it’s fleet

The United Airways (BD) Limited, the first listed airline in country’s capital market, added one Airbus A310 and one ATR-72 aircraft to its fleet on October 5, 2010 to consolidate its domestic, regional and international networks.

Capt. Tasbirul Ahmed Choudhury, Chairman and Managing Director, United Airways (BD) Ltd said, “This new addition of aircraft has increased the fleet strength of the airline to six.”

Full story: United Airways

United Airways celebrating three years of operation

United Airways celebrates three years of its service today. On the 10th of July 2007 the leading private airline in Bangladesh started its operation with its maiden flight from Dhaka to Sylhet. The pioneers of this airline are non-resident Bangladeshi (NRB) particularly from Sylhet.

Full story: United Airways

New player to fly the skies

One of the country’s oldest conglomerates Habib Group plans to venture into aviation business, a growing market in Bangladesh.

The nearly Tk 1,600 crore group has 21 manufacturing and service sector concerns, ranging from apparels, power, steel and paper to fertilisers.

It has already formed an entity — HG Aviation Ltd — as part of its plan to form an airline, Regent Airways, insiders said.

The new airline eyes launching domestic flights by March, the first quarter of 2010.

Full story: The Daily Star

More flights to UK

Bangladesh and the UK have decided to permit airlines of both countries to operate 31 flights a week, up from 10 flights previously.

Bangladeshi carriers such as Biman, United Airways and GMG will be able to operate 17 flights to London and 14 flights to other destinations in the UK.

Full story: The Daily Star

Inaugural Flight Dhaka to London starting from Sylhet

United Airways (BD) Ltd. a leading private sector airline founded by non-resident Bangladeshis, is starting its maiden Dhaka-London passenger flight on 21st November 2009. The first Dhaka-London flight of the airline is scheduled to take off from Dhaka for London with a 155-seat MD-83 and this flight starts from Sylhet and shall operate as domestic flight up to Dhaka. This aircraft is built in the USA and is equipped with state of the art technologies and navigational equipment.

United Airways has been designated to operate international flights to various countries by the government of Bangladesh. It is currently operating from Dhaka to Dubai, Kolkata, Chittagong, Jessore, Sylhet, and Cox’s Bazar and also from Chittagong to Kolkata.

Capt. Tasbirul Ahmed Choudhury, Chairman and Managing Director of United Airways (BD) Ltd. informed, “It will initially operate two passenger flights in a week on Dhaka-London route. On the other hand, we are scheduled to start Dhaka-Kuala Lumpur, Dhaka-Katmandu and Dhaka-Bangkok route by December 2009. By first quarter of 2010 we will start Dhaka-Jeddah route by state of the art Boeing 767-300ER”.

Capt. Tasbir also said, “United has one 155 seated MD-83 aircraft and two 37 seated Dash-8-100 aircraft. Another 155 seated MD-83 aircraft will join the fleet with-in November 2009. United Airways is also planning to procure another Boeing 767-300 ER aircraft by mid 2010.”

The one way special fare for Dhaka-London is Tk. 33683 (inclusive of all taxes) and return fare is $ 695 (exclusive of all taxes). Weekly two flights to London will be operated on Tuesday and Saturday and depart from Dhaka at 1200hrs.

“This operation is undoubtedly an achievement for the Bangladesh Aviation Industry, as United Airways is the first private airline to have planned this prestigious route in Europe” Capt. Choudhury added.

On 10 July 2007, United Airways first took to the skies with a slogan “Fly Your Own Airline” and has been providing committed services ever since. Since its inception, United received positive market response and presently holds a major share of the domestic and regional market. In a span of just two and half years of operation, United Airways has established its brand reputation for its maintenance of schedule, service and safety with the employment of latest technologies.

Hussain Muhammad Ershad, MP, Former President of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh at M A G Osmani International Airport, Sylhet and G M Quader, MP, Minister for Civil Aviation and Tourism at Zia International Airport formally inaugurated the first European flight operation as chief guests respectively. Among other guests who attended both the programs Mr. Muhammad Faruk Khan MP, Minister for Commerce, Mr. Shafiqur Rahman, MP, Diplomats of the foreign Mission, Govt. officials, High official of the travel agents, journalists of print and electronic media and high officials of United Airways were also present there. (source)