Biman not enjoying benefit from fleet commonality: Airbus

Biman not enjoying benefit from fleet commonality: Airbus

Ruling out some aviation experts observation that having a mixed fleet would not be favorable for Biman Bangladesh airlines, Airbus has claimed that currently the Bangladesh flag carrier is not benefiting from fleet commonality.
"Fleet commonality is an asset when there is commonality of system designs and technology, which is not the case with the existing Biman fleet," President and Managing Director at Airbus India and South Asia Remi Maillard told BSS recently in an written interview.
He said Biman does not enjoy any benefit of "cross-crew qualification" training for lack of a common cockpit design as its fleet consists with different version of six Boeing 777-300 ER, four Boeing 787-8, two Boeing 787-9, six Boeing 737 and five are Dash 8-400 aircraft.
However, when Bangladesh government showed its intention to buy planes from the Airbus, some aviation experts observed that a complex fleet will add additional investment and maintenance cost to Boeing dominated fleet of Biman to manage spare parts and to train new set of pilots.
Currently, the European aircraft manufacturer Airbus, the archrival of US based Boeing, is undergoing a negation to finalize a deal with the Bangladesh government to sell 10 wide body A350 aircraft including two freight planes to long-time Boeing customer Biman Bangladesh Airlines.
On May last, a Joint Communique was signed in London between Lord Dominic Johnson, UK Minister of State in the Department of Business and Trade, and Salman F. Rahman, Bangladesh Prime Minister Private Industry and Investment Adviser, with the aim of establishing an aviation and trade partnership to develop Bangladesh aviation sector.
Maillard claimed that the Communique, includes the purchase of 10 A350 aircraft, including two A350 Freighters, from Airbus.
The Airbus regional President said that the A350 freighter has total operational commonality with its passenger version siblings so pilots can fly all variants of A350 under the same rating, saving time and money for Biman Bangladesh.
However, Chairman of Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) Air Vice Marshal M Mafidur Rahman, who is also a board member of Biman Bangladesh airlines, recently said, Bangladesh government will purchase aircraft from either Airbus or Boeing, whoever will offer a good deal.