Biman has finally got rid of the last of its two leased Boeing 777-200ER airplanes that have been causing the national flag carrier to incur huge losses for several years. 

Leased from Egypt Air in 2014 for five years with stringent conditions that went against Biman’s interests, the extended range planes remained grounded since 2017 due to engine defects. One was returned to Egypt Air in July and the other on Tuesday.

Officials of Biman Bangladesh Airlines said the spare parts needed to repair the engines were unavailable.

The Tk-1,223 crore spent on these age-old planes is more than the price of a brand-new plane, they added. 

Biman had to pay Tk 56 crore to Egypt Air for breaching the terms of lease, Tk 600 crore for lease, Tk 310 crore for leasing four engines, around Tk 250 crore to United Airlines for repairs, and around Tk 7 crore to Vietnam Airlines Engineering Company for using its Bay, officials added.

The amount of loss would have been greater if the civil aviation ministry had not engaged the foreign affairs ministry to negotiate with Egypt. Finally, the Egypt Air agreed to take back the planes and relax some of the conditions, Mohibul Haque, secretary at the civil aviation ministry, said. 

As per the lease agreement, Biman was to pay Tk 10 crore a month to Egypt Air even if the planes remained grounded.

A probe by the Civil Aviation and Tourism Ministry in March concluded that the terms and conditions of the “non-transparent” lease agreement clearly went against Biman’s interests.

For instance, Biman was not allowed to void the agreement before five years, and once the deal expired, the carrier was supposed to return the planes exactly in the state in which they were received, the report said.

The probe body found that a section of Biman officials inked the non-transparent deal for personal gains, said a top civil aviation ministry official, quoting the probe report.

“The Biman officials involved in the agreement signing didn’t want the planes to fly. They apparently benefited while the planes remained grounded,” Mohibul said.

A senior official of the ministry said the government is identifying the officials who were responsible for the lease and those who delayed the process to return the planes.

The board of Biman Bangladesh Airlines on September 3 decided not to renew its contract with Sazzadur Rahim, director of engineering and material management, and suspended Ghazi Mahmud Iqbal, chief engineer of engineering services.

Since its inception in 1972, Biman has incurred losses due to corruption and mismanagement, aviation experts said.

The military-backed caretaker government in 2007 turned Biman into a public limited company with an aim to make it profitable. But that is still a far cry.

Except for three fiscals: 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17, Biman has been losing money since 2009-10, sources said. 

Mohibul blamed the contentious lease agreement for the Boeing 777-200 ERs as a major cause for the loss.

With its fleet of 16 planes, Biman currently flies to 16 international and seven domestic destinations. Six of the aircraft are on lease.