DHAKA: Regent Airways, country’s leading private airlines operator, has made plan for a big expansion in the aviation sector with a $100 million investment throughout next three years, said a senior official of the airline.
The airline is also looking to acquire five new aircraft as part of its big plan, including two ERJ-145s/EMB-170s and three B737-800s.
This acquisition will pave the way for RA to launch flights to 13 new international destinations which will create job opportunity to thousand people.
This investment will also increase some 93 percent of total seat capacity, which RA has presently been operating, whereas the flight numbers will increase from 443 to 635.
Regent Airways Deputy Managing Director (DMD) Salman Habib detailed the ins and outs of the airline’s future plan to banglanews.
Salman said, “Growth in aviation sector is good; the number of passengers is increasing too and especially, the rate of manpower extorting from Bangladesh is increasing.”
”Considering these facts, RA plans for new investment,” added the DMD.
In a bid to move forward, the airline has appointed Sam Issac as its chief adviser recently. Prior to joining with Regent, Issac was chief financial officer at Indian carrier Spicejet and also worked for Emirates, Etihad Airways and Saudi Arabian Airlines.
According to the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB), the number of airway passengers will cross 1 crore while the volume of air cargo will reach at 3.6 lakh tonnes by 2020. That means passengers will increase 76 percent while cargo 56.5 percent from the present figures.
Taking into consideration the CAAB data, the airline plans to lunch flights on 13 new international route including Doha Hamad Int'l, Muscat, Abu Dhabi Int'l, Riyadh, Jeddah, Gaya (India), and Johor Bahru in Malaysia.
The airline began commercial operations in domestic route in November 2010 and lunched international flights on July 2013. Started journey with two Bombardier Dash-8-Q300 aircraft, the airline has two Boeing 737-700 and three Dash-8 to its fleet.
It has so far carried approximately 8 lakh passengers on the domestic and international routes.
Regent is a subsidiary of Chittagong-based Habib Group. The Group also runs business in textiles, cement, steel, insurance, banking, power and real estate sectors home and abroad.
BDST: 1527 HRS, OCT 2, 2014
