Aviation Club of Bangladesh River Cruise-2009

Aviation Club of Bangladesh is going to organise a Day long River Cruise on 06 Feb-2009. They will start from Shadarghat BIWTC Terminal at 8:00 A.M and will return to same point by evening. There will be a lot of cultural programmes, RAFLE'S DRAW and other entertainment events on board. This year ACB is collecting General Membership. Interested persons can collect membeship form and apply for membership on board.Here is the highlighting gift list of Aviation Club of Bangladesh River Cruise-2009.

EMIRATES - DHAKA/LONDON/DHAKA - 1 Y CLASS TKT
DHAKA/DUBAI/DHAKA - 1Y CLASS TKT

GULF AIR - DHAKA/LONDON/DHAKA - 1Y CLASS TKT

ETIHAD AIRWAYS - DHAKA/ABU-DHABI/DHAKA - 1 Y CLASS TKT

GMG AIRLINES - DHAKA/SINGAPORE/DHAKA - 2 Y CLASS TKTS
DHAKA/KATHMANDU/DHAKA -2 Y CLASS TKTS

JET AIRWAYS - DHAKA/DELHI/DHAKA- 2 Y CLASS TKTS
DHAKA/KOLKATA/DHAKA -2 Y CLASS TKTS

CATHAY PACIFIC-
DRAGON AIR - DHAKA/HONGKONG-DHAKA-1 Y CLASS TKT

BIMAN BANGLADESH AIRLINES - DHAKA/BANGKOK/DHAKA 1 Y CLASS TKT

CONTINENTAL AIRLINES - GIFT HAMPER

ATLAS TRAVELS LTD. - GIFT HAMPER

VICTORY TRAVELS - DHAKA/BANGKOK/DHAKA 1 Y CLASS TKT

AIR TRIP INTERNATIONAL - GIFT HAMPER

EAST WEST TRAVELS & TOURS (PVT) LTD. - GIFT HAMPER

ISLAMIA OVERSEAS - GIFT HAMPER

VERSATILE TRAVELS & TOURS LTD - GIFT HAMPER

GALILEO - GIFT HAMPER

ABACUS - GIFT HAMPER

AMADEUS - GIFT HAMPER

PANPACIFIC SONARGAON HOTEL -GIFT HAMPER

WASHINGTON HOTEL - GIFT HAMPER

* MANY OTHER PRIZES HAVE BEEN COLLECTED FOR RAFLE'S DRAW

To know more about Aviation Club of Bangladesh visit http://www.acb.link2bd.com/ or http://www.acb-bd.tk/ or call on 01552413836.

Reported by - Mahmudul Hassan Sohel, Executive Member, Aviation Club of Bangladesh

Thai Resumes Daily Flights From 3rd-February-09

Thai Airways International (THAI) one of the longest serving airlines in Bangladesh has decided to withdraw flight cut on Bangkok-Dhaka-Bangkok route. Effective first week of this month (February) Thai will operate its usual daily flight on the route. It may be recalled that during political turmoil in November 2008 and capture of Airports by political demonstrators. Thai had to suspend its operation to Dhaka on November 26. It also suspended its operation to and from Shah Amanat International Airport, Chittagong. The airline resumed its flights to Dhaka from December 4, but with only five flights a week. This flight cut is going to be fully restored this week. However, the suspended operation to SAIA is not likely to be resumed. The decision to open the route was political and it was never profitable. Sourece: The Independent 03-Feb-09

GMG Airlines resumes Flights to Delhi, Dubai

GMG Airlines, the leading private sector airline of the country, recommenced thrice weekly flights to New Delhi and Dubai on January 21. Erfan Haque, General Mana-ger Sales, earlier made the announcement of resumption at a reception to honour travel agents at The Westin Dhaka on January 19. Ajith Weera-sekera, Head of Global Sales also spoke at the reception, which was attended by members of travel trade. The airline will be reintroducing thrice a week flights to Bangkok and Singapore on February 10. From March 1, the airline will be flying to Doha thrice weekly and adding three more flights to Dubai, taking the number to six flights a week, he added.GMG Airlines hopes to link Dhaka with Karachi, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia within the Summer Schedule, Shahab Sattar said, adding services to existing destinations will be further improved.GMG Airlines recently added a MD-83 aircraft to its fleet. With this, the airlines present fleet consists of three Dash-8s, two MD-82s and one MD-83. An Airbus A320 is expected to join the fleet in the middle of February. The Top Ten Agents who were honoured on the occasion are: Islamia Overseas Ltd, Air Trip International Ltd, East West Travels and Tours (Pvt) Ltd, Al-Gazi Travels Ltd, Hajee Air Travels, City-com Inter-national Travel Agency, Kazi Air Inter-national (Pvt) Ltd, DBH Inter-national (Pvt) Ltd, Oasis Air Services, and Beacon Travel International Ltd. Source: The Independent 03rd-Feb-2009

Kingfisher Airlines all set to start operating to Dhaka

Kingfisher Airlines, the sixth five-star airline of the world and the only five-star domestic airline of India, is all set to start operating to Dhaka in a month or two. Gireesh Bhaskar, Area Manager designate Bangladesh, Kingfisher Airlines, said this while talking to The Bangladesh Monitor at his office in the city recently. Initially well start with daily Kolkata-Dhaka flights. Well look at double daily flights at the earliest, he said adding, flights from Kolkata to Chittagong and Dhaka to other destinations in India would follow. The 40-minute evening flights will be operated with 66-seat six-blade ATR72-500, the longer ATR with more powerful engines and TV on board and configured in Kingfisher Plus (premium economy) class. It is the ideal aircraft to connect the two cities, he said. Kingfisher has 28 such brand new aircraft. Well be the last one to leave Kolkata and Dhaka, allowing the passengers to do a full days work at either city. Like all foreigners coming to Bangladesh, Bhaskars perceptions of Bangladesh changed after he arrived. Bangladesh is not what I thought. He promised to promote tourism between Bangladesh and India sharing my experience. Appreciating the warmth and hospitality of the people of this country, he said he finds no reason why Bangladesh should not get at much tourists as Nepal, where he served earlier. Asked why its products and services are different from other airlines, he said We treat our passengers as guests and we treat them just as we would treat our guests at our homes. We strongly believe that we are in the hospitality industry, not the transportation industry, Bhaskar said. The Bangalore based airline started operations in 2005 and went international with Bangalore-London flights last year. With 420 departures a day, 70-aircraft Kingfisher is considered one of the top 20 airlines in the world. Bhaskar, who hails from Kerala and has 16 years experience in the industry, is married and father of an eight-year-old daughter.
Source: The Independent on 3rd-Feb-2009

Pilot hailed for Hudson miracle

The pilot of an airliner that ditched in New Yorks Hudson River has been hailed a hero after all 155 passengers and crew were rescued, reports BBC.
The US Airways Airbus A320 made the crash-landing minutes out of LaGuardia airport, both its engines apparently disabled by a flock of birds. Passengers were rescued from the wings or helped from the icy water by divers.
Captain Chesley Sullenberger was praised by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg for his masterful landing. The state governor spoke of a miracle on the Hudson.
The BBCs Greg Wood reports from New York that it was a true delivery from disaster, a commercial airliner forced to ditch in the river just next to the skyscrapers of mid-town Manhattan but with no fatalities.
One person suffered two broken legs and paramedics treated 78 patients, most for minor injuries but, through a combination of luck, the skill of the pilot and a rapid emergency response, 155 people have had a very narrow escape, our correspondent says.
Flight 1549 departed LaGuardia en route to Charlotte, North Carolina, at 1503 local time (2003 GMT), after a delay of 18 minutes, US Airways said.
The pilot reported a double bird strike less than a minute after take-off and asked to return to the ground, before ditching in the Hudson, an air controllers union spokesman said.
Ferryboats arrived within minutes of the crash to begin the rescue as passengers emerged in life jackets.
The temperature was almost -7C and the current in the Hudson was running rapidly.
The plane moved rapidly down river, threatening to submerge at one point, until guided to a halt by tug boats against a pier.
It would appear that the pilot did a masterful job of landing the plane in the river, and then making sure that everybody got out, Mr Bloomberg said Thursday evening.
I had a long conversation with the pilot. He walked the plane twice after everybody else was off and tried to verify that there was nobody else onboard. And assures us there were not.
The mayor also commended emergency services, saying: They train for these kinds of emergencies, and you saw it in action.

Sourece: the Financial Express

Air India Fires 10 Flight Attendants For Being Overweight

State-run carrier Air India fired 10 flight attendants for being "exceptionally overweight," a spokesman said Tuesday.
The staff had been grounded for years and were sacked after a medical board declared them unfit for duty. The airline says they were given ample opportunity to shed weight.
"They haven't been flying for two to three years for being exceptionally overweight," Jitendra Bhargava, the airline's spokesman said.
Bhargava confirmed some of the air hostesses had approached the New Delhi High Court for a legal challenge, which was later thrown out.
"That is their democratic right," he said.
This is not the first time the airline has sacked employees for being overweight, he added.

Sourece: AIRWISE News Date06-01-2009

Biman force-retired 2000 staffs demand reinstatement - Anomalies return to ZIA

Around 2000 employees of Bangladesh Biman who were sent on forced self- retirement have urged the newly elected government to reinstate them to the service.
"The authority compelled us to go to self retirement with an empty hand showing different causes. Besides, they threatened us at several times. We are the victims of the circumstances. If they don't fulfill our demand, we will commit suicide," the jobless employees said at a protest rally demanding reinstatement in front of Balaka Bhaban in the city yesterday.
They alleged, "They were thrown out of employment on the plea of reducing manpower of Biman, but instead of reducing manpower, Biman's manpower has now been increased. What was then justification to send us home?" they alleged.
Chairman of the Board of Director of Biman said that the authority already was informed about the matter. "We do hope we will be able to resolve the problem avoiding any untoward situation," he assured.
Meanwhile, criminal syndicate at Zia International Airport has become very much active after two years. During the regime of emergency government, the criminals, cheats and organised thugs had gone into hiding but soon after taking power by the elected democratic government, they have started returning to ZIA and committing crimes.
"The anomalies at the ZIA are still rampant despite different measures to protect the incoming and outgoing passengers from sufferings and to check trafficking of currency and gold by the Bangladesh Biman employees, customs officials, police, ansars, smugglers, transport workers, porters, sweepers and cheats," talking to this correspondent a section of officials alleged.
Yesterday, Safiul Azam, Comm-unication Engineer of ZIA, was caught red handed while he was stealing away a laptop computer from a passenger. The arrested person later was released due to pressure of his colleagues.
Station Officer Shawkat Ali said that he was not present during incident." On that time Commu-nication Engineer Safiul Azam was not assigned to discharge his duty. I heard the theft incident and informed it to concerned higher authority," he said.
Criminals get protection and patronage from crime syndicates who have an unholy alliance with a group of unscrupulous members of police, customs, Biman and Civil Aviation Authority of Bang-ladesh, said other sources in ZIA.
Office in Charge of the Airport thana Sirazul Alam said, "Soon after the withdrawal of task force, we have taken various measures against the organised thugs and criminals."
On the other hand, passengers arriving at ZIA from abroad regularly become victims of harassment by a section of unscrupulous airport staff right under the nose of the police and the CAAB.
Moreover, traffic police, who regulate the parking in the newly-constructed car parking area of the airport, allegedly realise extra tolls illegally from each car in addition to normal toll.
Besides, ansar personnel collect from the incoming passengers handsome tips. If tips are not paid, they are harassed in different ways, sources complained to this correspondent.
They alleged these CAAB employees - mostly cleaners, conveyer belt operators and security guards - are known as 'carriers' in the smuggling racket. They have links with high officials for smuggling of contraband items.

Source- The Bangladesh Today, Date-11-Jan-2009