DHAKA: Biman Bangladesh Airlines stopped its Dhaka-Frankfurt route after six months of inauguration due to frequent loss.

The last flight of Biman Bangladesh Airlines left Dhaka for Frankfurt on Monday carrying only 21 passengers.

Sources said the flight left Dhaka at noon and the number of passengers in the route always remained from 20 to 25.

In 2006, the national flag carrier authorities closed the flights to eight routes, including Frankfurt, Narita and Manchester.

Banglanews correspondent tried several times to contact with the Biman’s acting managing director Mosaddek Ahmed, also chief executive officer, but could get them unavailable.

Investigations show that knowing the flight of the Frankfurt route a losing concern to the organization, the authorities resumed its service with newly bought 777-300 ER craft consisting of 419 passenger seats.

But the number of regular passengers in the flight was 20 on an average.

The inauguration of the flight created debate as it was resumed materializing the wish of a senior Biman official. The number of passengers of the maiden flight was 29 while the last flight carried 21.

According to the sources, about 75 percents of total numbers of passengers are needed to make the flight profitable. But the fights of Dhaka-Frankfurt route fulfilled only 10 percents.

Moreover, a few numbers of passengers are using the newly open Dhaka-Yangon, Dhaka-Delhi and Dhaka–Manchester routes that have also made loss. But the routes have been introduced to meet the desire of Biman chairman Jamal Uddin.

The authorities also did not survey the prospect of the flights in the newly open routes, the sources added.

BDST: 1749 HRS, OCT 27, 2014