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duck
01-01-2005, 11:40 PM
From New Age

"Biman to float fresh tender to purchase DASH aircraft


Monday December 13 2004 09:38:17 AM BDT


The Biman Bangladesh Airlines board at a meeting on Sunday cancelled the current proposal of buying three DASH aircraft for domestic routes and decided to buy the same aircraft through a fresh tender.

The meeting chaired by state minister for civil aviation and tourism, Mir Mohammad Nasiruddin, however, finalised that it would buy the expensive DASH aircraft of the Canadian Bombardier Aerospace instead of the low-cost French ATR brand.

“As per the recommendations of the fleet planning subcommittee, the board has decided to buy the DASH aircraft,” Nasiruddin told New Age over telephone after the meeting.

He gave an assurance that transparency would be maintained in the purchase of the aircraft directly from the manufacturers.

About the cancellation of buying the less expensive ATR aircraft, Nasiruddin said the fleet planning subcommittee had rejected the proposal for the ATR aircraft. The trade-in value of DASH is much higher than the ATR,” he said.

The meeting was told that as the tender was invited in August 2003 and as one year and a half have elapsed by now, Biman should go for a fresh tender.

The meeting also hoped that the authorities might get lucrative offers from the bidders in the trade-in of the two ATP and the three F-28 aircraft.

The meeting was attended by the civil aviation secretary, communications secretary and other high officials of the Biman Bangladesh Airlines.

At a meeting on November 27, Biman executive directors recommended purchase of three DASH aircraft, despite their higher fuel consumption and maintenance cost, on the ground that the brand was more profitable than the ATR.

An evaluation committee earlier reported that three DASH 8-Q-400 aircraft would cost $79.98 million while the same number of ATR 72-500 aircraft would cost $50.7 million.

A Canadian DASH aircraft is priced at $26.66 million, almost twice as much as a French ATR 72-500, which costs $16.9 million, according to the report of an evaluation committee.

New Age"

usa320
01-01-2005, 11:44 PM
ATR's are ****. American Airlines used to fly them heavily around the US, but after a few crashed and incidents, they no longer could. There was a problem with their de-icing system, and if flown in cooler climates like the North East, the props would not feather properly and the control surfaces would lock up. i reckon only a handful are still in service with US Airlines, mainly with American, flying routes around the Caribean and Florida.