Biman Bangladesh Airlines (BG, Dhaka) has issued a Request For Proposals (RFP) for the wet-lease of two widebody aircraft covering the Hajj 2020 Season as well as those in 2021, 2022, and beyond.

The state-owned airline said in tender documents seen by ch-aviation that the two jets should be of any make, but should preferably be sisterships. They should seat 350 ± 10% passengers in a two-class configuration and must not be more than 12 (twelve) years old as on May 20, 2020.

  • Hajj Season 2020: June 17 - September 14, 2020;
  • Hajj Season 2021: June 17 - September 3, 2021;
  • Hajj Season 2022: May 26 - August 24, 2022.

Eligible operators must also have a minimum of three years experience in operating to and from Saudi Arabia.

In return, Biman is offering Minimum Guaranteed Hours (MGH) of 750 Block Hours (BH) per aircraft for the entire lease term during each Hajj Season. In the event two aircraft are secured from the same operator, the MGH will be combined into 1,500 Block Hours for the entire lease term covering each Hajj season.

The deadline for submissions is 1000L (0600Z) on November 14, 2019.

Biman currently operates four in-house B777-300(ER)s alongside four B787-8s. According to Bangladesh's Business Standard newspaper, the airline has now secured two B787-9s from Boeing (BOE, Washington National) that were destined for Hainan Airlines (HU, Haikou) but not taken up.

The report said Biman's board approved the purchase, said to have been done at a reduced price, at a meeting on Wednesday, October 23.