Bangladesh To Go Ahead With Boeing Deal

Bangladesh told Boeing on Sunday that it would implement a USD$1.27 billion deal to buy eight aircraft signed last year, a government official said.

Under the deal, which was signed in April 2008 under the army-backed interim government, Boeing is to supply four 777-300ER aircraft to state-owned Bangladesh Biman Airlines by 2013 and four 787-8s aircraft by 2020.

So far, Bangladesh has not placed an order.

Miguel Santos, a Boeing sales director and James Moriarty, US ambassador to Dhaka, discussed the deal when they met Prime Minister Sheikh Hasinam, a spokesman for the US Embassy said.

"They (Santos and Moriarty) asked Bangladesh to implement the deal of buying planes," the spokesman said.

An official from the prime minister's office said that Hasinam had told the two men that Bangladesh would would honor the agreement.

"Bangladesh has assured Boeing of buying the aircraft as agreed," the official said.

He said that Hasinam also told Santos and Moriarty that the country needed more planes than eight in the contract, but did not give any further details.

When the deal was signed for the eight aircraft, the airline also said it was willing to buy two more Boeings by 2015 to boost the frequency of its flights.

Santos and Moriarty also met Bangladesh Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith to discuss the agreement.

Biman, which will fund the purchase through bank loans, became a public limited company in July 2007, with 100 percent state ownership.

The airline was forced to halt its flights to New York, Paris, Tokyo, Frankfurt, Brussels, Yangon and Mumbai in 2006 due to a shortage of funds and aircraft.