Yemenia flies to Bangladesh [Archives:2004/763/Community]
August 12 2004
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The Yemenia Airlines celebrated last Friday the inauguration of its flights to Dhaka, Bangladesh. Captain Abdulkhaleq Al-Qadhi, Chairman Executive Officer, in his opening speech explained the phases that Yemenia had gone through since 1997 to now. Yemenia began to modernize its fleet by introducing two new Airbus 310 planes in 1997. In 1998, in an official report, Yemenia was on the verge of bankruptcy and it was expected to fold at the end December of same year.
Then Yemenia, with the support of President Saleh and the Government began to transform from a company that was near declaring bankruptcy into a competing company at the regional level. A project was approved to build a larger aircraft hangar. Two new planes were purchased in November 1999 and four more in 2000. The modernization and the development process of Yemeni continued with the assistance and dedication of the employees and the support of the government. In 2002, three new Boeings 737NG were added to the Yemenia fleet.
Mr. AL-Qadhi explained that the modernization process would continue with two Airbus 330 soon to join the fleet, the first in October and the second in November of this year, increasing the total number of new planes to nine.
As far as the new route to Dhaka, the chairman said due to the connection between Yemen and the region including Bangladesh, the new route would prove to be of tremendous economic value. He also added that a new service to China would be opened soon. He said that there were several feasibility studies being carried out to possibility operate new flying routes to Manila.
Mr. Al-Qadhi alluded to the ongoing work to develop Sana'a International Airport. He expressed his hope that the Government would complete the construction of the new airport terminals in order for Sana'a International Airport to be of an international standard, especially since the funds for the project had already been allocated.
A delegation from Yemenia Airlines, headed by Captain Ameen Al-Haime, left for Dhaka to officially inaugurate the new Yemeni office there. The delegation was received, at Zia International Airport, by Mr. Obaid Mugaib, the General Director of Sales Agency of Yemenia. A celebration was held to commemorate the occasion that was attended by a number of Bangladeshi Businessmen.
Captain Ameen Al-Haime, in a statement to Yemen Times, said that the choice of a new route to Dhaka was a service based on a feasibility study, the highly competitive privileges of Yemenia, distinguished services on board the new planes, the number of Yemenis and the size of booking, means that the cost of each flight to Dhaka was estimated between US$80-90 thousands.
It is worth mentioning that Yemenia hosted a number of Yemeni Newspapers' correspondents at Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel in Dhaka where they had a tour to historical sites in the city. The correspondents expressed their gratitude to Yemenia and to Mr. Abdul Qaher, Public relations Director for the cooperation and assistant to the correspondents.
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