Only a month into the controversial purchase of two ageing and faulty F-28s, Biman Bangladesh Airlines now wants to sell them off along with three other similar aircraft.
And if it fails to sell these obsolete planes, it would try to trade them in for either Airbus or Boeing that Biman intends to buy.
"But the whole procurement will take at least two to three years as it involves many complicated technical and financial issues," Biman Acting Managing Director Mahmoodur Rahman said at a press conference yesterday at Balaka Bhaban.
Asked why Biman bought the 26-year old faulty F-28s in the first place, he said after two ATP planes were sold off in January, there was a shortage of aircraft in the fleet to operate on eight domestic and 26 international flights. This situation led the airline to buy the F-28s, he claimed.
But Mahmoodur could not give any satisfactory reply as to why Biman did not feel the shortage of aircraft while the two ATPs remained grounded for a long time since 1999 and raised the issue of plane crisis only when it wanted to buy the F-28s.
He, however, said as the two ATPs were missing from the fleet, Biman used two leased Boeing 737 to keep flight schedule uninterrupted. But the fact remains that the Boeing 737s leased from a Singapore company operated flights from February 2003 to April 2004 while the ATPs were in hangar during 1999 to mid-2003.
Failing to justify purchase of the F28s from an Indonesian company at a cost of $2.91 million, the acting managing director then said the planes are of the best technology available in the series at such a price.
About the engine failure of one of the newly procured F-28 in Chittagong on Tuesday, Biman's Director (Engineering) S Zilani Mahbubur Rahman said the plane was repaired and put into operation yesterday.
Although the F-28 failed to start about six times in five weeks, he said this is not unusual. "A plane can experience one fault in 10 flights whereas the two newly procured F-28s faced engine faults eight times in 332 flights since June 3," he added.
http://www.thedailystar.net/
Bought a month ago, Biman now wants to get rid of F-28s
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Bought a month ago, Biman now wants to get rid of F-28s
Can you believe this?? 8O
IMHO they have been trained by Swissair's management... and they now manage (sn26567 wrote:Biman's management seems to be even worse than Swissair's !!!
Who would want to buy F28s anyway ?
) to do better than Swissair. 
If they are reading us (you never know), I kindly remind them to the fact that Ryanair could provide them with 11 "previously operated" Boeing 737-200s.
Regards
BeN
Note to Mr Ryanair: If Biman Airways buy you some 737-200s, I would be very grateful if you could offer me a 1/25 scale model of this type for my lobby and an other 1/100 for my study room.
-
Robin_Bamps
Here's a picture from one of their F28's :
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/059173/L/
I also discovered that there has been a crash in 1997 with a Biman F-28.
Check out http://www.airliners.net/open.file/059843/L/
As I had an airline myself, I would surely NOT buy second-hand aged airframes of which one of the same type already crashed while in service with my airline
Regards, Robin Bamps.
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/059173/L/
I also discovered that there has been a crash in 1997 with a Biman F-28.
Check out http://www.airliners.net/open.file/059843/L/
As I had an airline myself, I would surely NOT buy second-hand aged airframes of which one of the same type already crashed while in service with my airline
Regards, Robin Bamps.
As I had an airline myself, I would surely NOT buy second-hand aged airframes of which one of the same type already crashed while in service with my airline
Well, there have crashed various types of aircraft (almost all acft types BTW), and they are still been sold. Sure, there has to be an investigation, but if the aircraft is safe (after perhaps some adjustments) you can use them again.
And you don't know the cause of this accident. Maybe it is a pilot error. This is what I found about the crash (on BBC);
And if it was a pilot error, it makes no sense to ground the aircraft.The Biman Bangladesh Airlines Fokker 28 plane crash landed in heavy fog after the pilot had made several failed attempts to land at Sylhet, an airport official said.
I totally agree with sjakie on this one.
I don't see why an airline shouldn't buy a airplane type if it allready had a crash with that type. A crash can have many different causes, and can happen even if the airplane has a very good technical record.
But what I wonder is why they bought those F-28, knowing that they are probably very close to the max. number of cycles for the airframe ? Or haven't those F-28 flown a lot in the previous years ?
Greetz
Chris
8)
I don't see why an airline shouldn't buy a airplane type if it allready had a crash with that type. A crash can have many different causes, and can happen even if the airplane has a very good technical record.
But what I wonder is why they bought those F-28, knowing that they are probably very close to the max. number of cycles for the airframe ? Or haven't those F-28 flown a lot in the previous years ?
Greetz
Chris
8)