State owned airlines Biman Bangladesh has added the sixth Boeing 737-800 aircraft to its fleet.
The new aircraft, leased from Kuwait’s Alafco Aviation Lease and Finance Company landed at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport at 3 am on Saturday (Jun 29), Biman Deputy Director General (communications) Tahera Khandaker told Bangla Tribune.
According to sources, Biman has leased two Boeing 737s for six years from Alafco, the first of which arrived on May 16.
Both the aircrafts have a capacity of 162 passengers: 12 business class and 150 economy.
Back in 2014, Biman dry leased two Boeing 777-200s from Egypt Air for five years. However, the mechanical errors in the aircrafts have led to airlines counting Tk 10 million in losses every year.
A delegation of the airlines is in Egypt in order to discuss the return of those two aircrafts.
The state-owned airlines has in an attempt to strengthen its fleet and expand routes has taken initiatives to acquire a number of aircrafts.
It has started operating direct Dhaka to Delhi flights from May 13 and is planning on expanding direct flights to Guangzhou, Jeddah, Dammam and Riyadh.
The last of the two Boeing-787 Dreamliners that Biman purchased will be added to its fleet by July or September this year.