Biman Bangladesh Airlines is set to resume its Dhaka-Rome-Dhaka direct flight from Tuesday night after nine years prompting by large number of expatriate Bangladeshi community residing in Italy.
"We are all set to resume the flight. As per our market analysis, the Dhaka-Rome-Dhaka will be another popular one like our London (UK) Toronto (Canada) and Narita (Japan) routes," Biman's Managing Director and CEO Shafiul Azim told BSS on Monday.
Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister M Faruk Khan will be present as the chief guest along with Italian Ambassador to Bangladesh Antonio Alessandro at the opening ceremony at 9:30 pm at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) while the inaugural flight is scheduled to depart Dhaka at 3:30am.
Expressing his optimism regarding commercial viability of the Rome route, Azim said the decision of resuming the flight was thoroughly assessed from a commercial standpoint while Bangladeshi expatriates in Rome have increased sevenfold since 2009.
"The planning of Biman's route expansion to different cities in Europe is a reflection of Honorable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's commitment to the expatriate Bangladeshis," he said.
The Dhaka to Rome flight will be Biman's third European destination as currently the national flag carrier is operating flights to London and Manchester.
Biman's Chief said they are working on interlining with Alitalia airlines, the largest carrier of Italy to get passengers from other major cities of Italy and other European major cities.
Interlining is a commercial agreement between airlines that allows them to sell each other's tickets and services to passengers on itineraries with more than one flight.
Referring to Italian Embassy in Dhaka, Azim said after announcement of the Rome flight the visa applications to Italy has increased threefold.
It is expected that the direct flight will not only cater to Dhaka-bound passengers but also serve as a hub for passengers from other cities like Kathmandu, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok and Singapore.
Azim said he is also planning to use Rome as a stopover to Biman's Dhaka-Toronto-Dhaka flight as currently the state-owned carrier is using Istanbul for refueling its Canada-bound flight.
"As we have set up our station in Rome, it will be cost effective if we use Rome instead of Istanbul for refueling our Toronto flight," he said.
Bangladesh Biman initially began operating flights to Rome on April 2, 1981 and stopped on April 6, 2015, facing financial losses due to massive fuel consumption by the then DC-10 carrier and aircraft shortages.
This time, Biman will operate the Rome direct flight with its brand new state of art Boeing 787 Dreamliner that will reduce travel time between Bangladesh and Italy to just 9 hours.
Biman's Sales and Marketing Director Mohammad Salahuddin said, so far, they are getting positive response on the route as 190 economy seats out of 247 have already been sold out for the inaugural Dhaka-Rome flight.
In return flight, Biman got more response as all the economy seats have been sold out along with 10 business-class seats.
He expected that Biman's Dhaka-Rome-Dhaka flight will get maximum cabin factor within few months as expatriate Bangladeshis are usually buy their tickets three four months ahead of their travel date.
Between March 27 and March 31, flight BG-355 will depart Dhaka every Monday, Tuesday and Thursday at 2am local time and reach Rome at 7am local time.
From April 1, the flight will take off from Dhaka on every Monday, Tuesday and Thursday at 3am as per the summer schedule and arrive at the capital of Italy at 9:10am. The flight will leave Rome at 10:45am and land in Dhaka at 11:45pm.
Biman launches Smart Call Centre
Biman Bangladesh Airlines has officially inaugurated its Smart Call Centre with a ceremony held at the national flag carrier's Balaka headquarters.
Biman's Managing Director and CEO, Shafiul Azim, inaugurated it by dialing the short code number 13636.
Through this call centre, passengers can avail all kinds of services related to "Biman" by calling the number 13636 using Bangladesh's mobile networks. Similarly, passengers traveling from abroad can receive services by dialing the number 096109-13636.
Shafiul Azim said this internally managed call centre is in its initial phase. Plans are underway to enhance passenger services by swiftly incorporating various modern features, including outsourcing part-time employment opportunities to university students and relocating the call centre to a separate establishment.
