DHAKA: Private airline operator United Airways Limited is operating its flights with only using its half of the total fleet as five out of 11 airplanes remained grounded for long.
United is also following the policies of cut-route-and-launch-route to run the flights and alternating engine installment to keep its jets active.
These nuisances apparently add insults on injuries to the customers as they have often been coming up with pile of accusations against the services of the airline operator.
United has a total of 11 jets in its fleet. One is Dash 8-800, two are Airbuses-310, three are ATR-72 and five are MD-83.
Sources of the Airline said: “One of two Airbuses always remains grounded. At present, three out of 5 MD-83s and one out of 3 ATR-72s have also been grounded. The ATR-72 has been grounded over a month, which is not being operated due to shortage of engine.”
Adding to it, the 2 Airbus-310s never fly the sky together rather take flights in alternative to each other.
One of those always develops mechanical faults; subsequently, a patchwork of engine parts installment of the active one to the inactive one is followed all the time.
When banglanews correspondent visited the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on May 23 found that there were six planes grounded at the airport. In another times, the planes’ number was no less than five.
The airlines sources said, “United operates all flights of domestic, Dhaka-Kolkata and Dhaka-Katmandu routes using only two ATR-72 jets, uses Dash 8-100 for Dhaka-Kuala Lumpur route and uses Airbus 310 in case the number of passengers gets bigger.”
That Airbus 310 is also the one and only jetliner that carries passengers on Dhaka-Modena and Dhaka-Doha routes.
People, those are closed to aviation industry for long, said, “United launches a new route in one side and stops another route in another side, and the operator’s route planning is going on in this way.”
Several days ago, the airlines stopped its flights on Dhaka-Singapore, Dhaka-Dubai and Dhaka-Bangkok routes; on the other hand, it has launched new flights on Dhaka-Doha and Dhaka-Modena routes recently.
The airline, however, denied of going through any kinds of problems in its flights schedules.
“Due to fewer routes and flights, we are experiencing no problem of having less numbers of jets at the present time,” United spokesperson, also an assistant general manager, Kamrul Islam told banglanews.
In fact, United Airways Limited allegedly released its shares in the stock markets showing it 11 jets, for this reason they are not cutting down its jet numbers though the airlines want to do so.
The airline operator said they are likely to resume their flights, those have been halted recently.
“The flights for Singapore and Bangkok will be resumed soon, these jets will also be required then; the jets remain landed for C Check,” Kamrul added.
In addition the small engine parts are bought through a tender with minimum price of the engine parts as per the existing rules and regulations.
But United is not maintaining the rules as the company buys the engine parts from the seller, which its board of directors chooses without calling tender.
An investigation of Anti Corruption Commission found that “The company have bought 20-year-old airplane in a higher price than the international price; besides, they show the jets of same models with different prices.”
The prices of three MD-83s were estimated at $76.20 lakhs, 88.24580 lakhs and $76 lakhs. Prices of the jets of the other models were also shown in that way – same model, different price.
C Check
C Check is a type of aircraft maintenance check, which is performed approximately every 20–24 months or a specific amount of actual flight hours or as defined by the manufacturer. This check puts the aircraft out of service and until it is completed, the aircraft must not leave the maintenance site.
BDST: 1234 HRS MAY 28, 2014
