page_title: Biman Bangladesh Airlines
section_title: New York and Manchester
hierarchical_section_title: Biman Bangladesh Airlines / Destinations / New York and Manchester
caption_attribution_description: English: Biman flies internationally to: London, Manchester; Riyadh, Dammam, Medina, Jeddah; Kuwait; Doha; Abu Dhabi, Dubai; Muscat; New Delhi, Kolkata; Kathmandu; Bangkok; Kuala Lumpur; Singapore.
context_page_description: Biman Bangladesh Airlines, commonly known as Biman, pronounced, is the national flag carrier of Bangladesh. With its main hub at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka, the airline also operates flights from its secondary hubs at Shah Amanat International Airport in Chittagong and as well as Osmani International Airport in Sylhet. The airline provides international passenger and cargo services to multiple destinations and has air service agreements in 42 countries. The headquarters of the airline, Balaka Bhaban, is located in Kurmitola, in the northern part of Dhaka. Annual Hajj flights; transporting tourists, migrants and non-resident Bangladeshi workers; and the activities of its subsidiaries form an integral part of the corporate business of the airline. Bangladesh's air transport sector, which is experiencing an 8% annual growth rate thanks to a large number of outbound tourists, domestic tourists and non-resident Bangladeshi travellers, is very competitive with stiff competition among a number of private Bangladeshi airlines as well as Biman.
  Created in February 1972, Biman enjoyed an internal monopoly in the aviation industry of Bangladesh for 24 years, until 1996.
context_section_description: As of January 2020, flights to New York remain suspended due to a shortage of aircraft. From 1993 to 2006, Biman operated flights to John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York City, from Dhaka via Brussels. New York was Biman's farthest and most prestigious destination, and was kept operational, despite heavy financial losses towards the end, to maintain a landing slot in the US which, if cancelled, could be difficult to regain. To curb the losses, Biman reduced the service to one flight per week and re-routed it through Manchester Airport, UK, capitalising on travel demands from the expatriate Bangladeshi community in the north of England. On 8 April 2006, Biman's inaugural flight to Manchester landed at Manchester Airport en route to JFK. However, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had placed the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) into Category 2 (does not meet International Civil Aviation Organization standards) according to its International Aviation Safety Assessment Program, which placed additional restrictions on the country's airlines when flying to the US. For Biman, this meant that it could continue flying to the US, but could not expand or make alterations to its routes, such as changing the transit from Brussels to Manchester. The FAA fined Biman for breaching its rules, and flights to New York were again re-routed through Brussels.
  The FAA had already warned Biman to replace its ageing DC-10s by December 2005. According to experts, these aircraft were inadequately equipped to safely cross the Atlantic. On 13 May 2006, the FAA refused permission for Biman flight BG001 (Dhaka–Brussels–JFK) to enter its airspace, citing safety concerns over the ailing DC–10 aircraft used on the route. The flight was diverted to Montréal–Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport in Canada, where the passengers were provided with alternative airline options to complete their journey. Canadian authorities inspected the aircraft and gave it a clean bill of health after which the aircraft returned to Dhaka without any passengers. The FAA eventually admitted it was mistaken and apologised for the error. The incident put an end to the route, which had been losing US$80,000 per flight, owing to its use of obsolete DC-10s. Biman decided to axe the route along with a number of other regional and domestic routes to curb the huge losses being incurred by the airline each month. However, in October 2007, Biman was directed by the then caretaker government to resume flights to New York. Biman was given until 25 October 2008 (extended from an earlier deadline of 23 March 2008) to resume flights to the airport by the JFK airport authority, after which it would have lost the landing slot permanently.
  Since January 2020, Biman flies thrice a week directly to Manchester from Dhaka, after purchasing two new Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners.
caption: Biman flies internationally to: London, Manchester; Riyadh, Dammam, Medina, Jeddah; Kuwait; Doha; Abu Dhabi, Dubai; Muscat; New Delhi, Kolkata; Kathmandu; Bangkok; Kuala Lumpur; Singapore.
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