Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei (BBN)-The Bangladesh High Commissioner in Brunei has urged Royal Brunei Airlines (RB) and Bangladesh’s Biman Airlines to begin official talks and pursue their initial interests of establishing direct air links.
“We (Bangladesh and Brunei) have mentioned the idea of a code-sharing agreement before and that both airlines were interested. So I advised both airlines to start talks already,” Bangladesh HC Mohammed Abdul Hye told The Brunei Times recently.
Last year, he disclosed that the two countries’ national carriers were in discussions and “in favour of working out some kind of commercial arrangement.”
However, in the interview, he said official negotiations have yet to begin despite the interests and he had followed up on the matter six months ago.
The top envoy said the Sultanate’s flag carrier should seriously consider establishing direct air links with Bangladesh, after the airlines recently announced the resumption of direct flights to Vietnam.
“RB is now going to Ho Chi Minh. If you compare the number of foreign workers from Vietnam and that of ours, we have better market prospects as we have a big number of Bangladeshi workers here,” Hye said.
However, RB’s main focus on the Vietnam route may be for tourism as opposed to servicing foreign workers.
Bangladesh, on the other hand, can offer a strong market for the purpose of transporting foreign workers. There are more than 10,000 Bangladeshi workers in Brunei, most of them employed in the construction sector.
“If you look at it, a big number of the foreign labourers in Brunei comes from Bangladesh, India and Pakistan. So this is a big opportunity for both airlines if they can serve this market,” he said.
A four-hour direct flight from Bandar Seri Begawan to Dhaka and vice versa will drastically cut down the travel time between the two countries as currently passengers would have to endure a total 10-hour travel period including lay-off time at the point of transit.
The high commissioner also said the proposed air links would boost economic activities between the republic and the Sultanate.
BBN/JF-20Aug14-3:50pm (BST)