Youngest fleet in South Asia
Immediately after independence, Biman Bangladesh Airlines started its journey on 4th January 1972 with a DC-3 aircraft. After procuring two F-27s, Biman finally took-off on 4th February 1972 with domestic flights to Chittagong and Sylhet from its base at Dhaka. Shortly after, a Boeing 707 aircraft joined the airline’s fleet, allowing Biman to begin international flights. By end of the seventies, Biman had a fleet of 8 F27 and 5 Boeing 707 to serve domestic and international destinations.
The Eighties was the new era of building Biman fleet with new Fokker 28-4000 in 1981, three wide-bodied DC10-30s joined in 1983, one new DC10-30 joined in 1989. In early 1990, Biman phased out its aging F27 and purchased two new ATPs to serve domestic and some regional destinations. In 1996 Biman also purchased two new Airbus 310-300 from Airbus and phased out its ATPs in 2004.
In order to modernize the Biman fleet with new generation aircraft, Biman signed two agreements with Boeing in April and May 2008 for purchasing new generation 4 X 777-300ER, 4 X 787-8 and 2 X 737-800 aircraft. Four 777-300ER aircraft joined Biman fleet in October/November 2011, February 2014 and 21 March 2014. Two 737-800s aircraft joined Biman fleet in November/December 2015. Three Boeing 787-8 aircraft joined Biman fleet in August/December 2018 and August 2019. On 16 May 2019, 5th Boeing 737-800 arrived to join Biman’s fleet. 6th Boeing 737-800 arrived to join Biman fleet in June 30, 2019. Fourth new 787-8 aircraft delivered by Boeing in September 2019. The first of the three Dash-8 planes purchased based on G2G agreement between the Governments of Bangladesh and Canada was added to the fleet on 26 December 2020 and the second & third are respectively on 24 February 2021 & 05 March 2021.
At present, the total number of aircraft in the fleet is 21. Of these, four are Boeing 777-300 ER, four are Boeing 787-8, two are Boeing 787-9, six are Boeing 737 and five are Dash 8-400 aircraft.