Dhaka – Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Tuesday asked the officials of Biman Bangladesh Airlines to gain the trust of passengers by ensuring the standard services with honesty and sincerity.“I request you one thing, we’ve procured these aircraft with hard-earned money…you must ensure their maintenance with honesty and sincerity, and providing standard services to passengers,” she said.
The Prime Minister said this while addressing the induction ceremony of the state-of-the-art aircraft Rajhangsha — Biman Bangladesh Airlines’ fourth brand new Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner — at the VVIP Terminal of Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) here in the afternoon.
She hoped that the national flag carrier will be able to carry more passengers due to its geographical location and this could be used as the bridge between the East and the West.
Sheikh Hasina said the government has a plan to procure two cargo planes for expediting export from Bangladesh.”We’ll procure two cargo planes for carrying goods… we’ll set up standard and develop a cargo village so that we could carry out our export in a much easier way… we’ll take that step,” she said.
Mentioning the future plan to procure three more Dash planes for Biman,Hasinasaid she heard that US plane-manufacturing company Boeing is going to sell two aircraft shortly.
“Someone is not taking those after placing the order, we’ll avail of the opportunity,” she said.”We think that we will be able to procure (those two) with our own money, that will not be a problem,” she said.
The Prime Minister said that the government has a plan to expand the wings of Biman in the coming days.She said that Biman would start its flight to Manchester as Bangladeshi people living there have been requesting her for a long time to start Biman’s flight operation.
Regarding the New York flight she said that as Boeing is a US company it would not look good if their own plane could not fly from Bangladesh to their country.
“The inclusion of Rajhangsha into the Biman’s fleet is another milestone for the national flag carrier … it’s day of fulfilling the dream,” she told the induction ceremony.
Earlier, the prime minister commissioned ‘Rajhangsha’ cutting a ribbon at the VVIP Tarmac of HSIA.After the inauguration, Sheikh Hasina boarded and inspected inside the aircraft and talked to its pilots and other crew members.
A munajat was offered on the occasion seeking continued peace, progress and prosperity of the nation.State Minister for Civil Aviation and Tourism Mahbub Ali, Chairman of Board of Directors of Biman Air Marshal (retd) Muhammad Enamul Bari and Civil Aviation and Tourism Secretary Mohibul Haque also spoke at the induction ceremony.
Managing Director and CEO of Biman Md Mokabbir Hossain delivered the welcome address.Ministers, advisers, parliament members and dignitaries were present at the function.
Earlier, the first and second Boeing 787-8 Dreamliners — named Akash Beena and Hangsabalaka respectively — arrived here in August and December last year, while the third one — Gaangchil — arrived in July.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina named all the newly procured Boeings including the Dreamliners.In 2008, Biman signed a US$2.1 billion agreement with Boeing to purchase 10 new aircraft. Of those, Boeing has already delivered four 777-300ER’s, two 737-800’s and three Dreamliners to Biman.
The fourth Dreamliner ‘Rajhangsha’, is the last one of the 10 new aircraft.The 271-seater Rajhangsha has been designed to be 20 percent fuel efficient compared to other aircraft. The airliner has the capacity to fly 16 hours nonstop with an average speed of 650 miles per hour, and is also equipped with on-board Wi-Fi.
It will provide passengers with Wi-Fi services at a height of 43,000 feet, allowing passengers to browse the internet or connect with their friends and family from any place of the world.UNB
