Water cannons spout as Biman touches Narita's runway

Water cannons were spouted while landing gears of Biman Bangladesh Airlines Dreamliner Boeing 787 Gangchil touched Narita international Airport's taxiway after 17 long years.

The national flag carrier received the water cannons reception at the airport, 60 kilometers east of Tokyo, as the Biman's first flight of direct Dhaka-Narita route BG 0376 arrived here at 9 am (local time) on Saturday.

Water cannons reception is a traditional etiquette of aviation sector where airports welcome any new airline to its taxiway by washing the aircraft spouting water through water cannons from both side to show honor to the new airline.

Officials of Narita airport welcomed the Biman's delegation headed by State Minister for Civil Aviation and Tourism M Mahbub Ali at the airport lounge.

In a welcome ceremony at the lounge, the state minister expressed his hope that the Biman's direct connectivity to Japan will open new doors of trade, tourism and cultural exchanges between Bangladesh and Japan.

He said the direct air connectivity will add value to the ties between Bangladesh and Japan while the two friendly countries have elevated its bilateral relations to strategic partnership during the recent visit of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to Tokyo.

"The new flight will further strengthen the bilateral relations between Bangladesh and Japan as the direct connectivity increases people to people contact between the two nations," he said.

The state minister hoped that the new flight would give a boost to Bangladesh-Japan bilateral trade and also attract Japanese tourists to visit exciting tourist spots of Bangladesh.

Mahbub expressed his optimism to make the new route profitable to attract passengers from Nepal, Bhutan and north eastern states of India apart from Bangladeshi nationals.

Managing Director and CEO of Biman Bangladesh Shafiul Azim said Biman has already offer lucrative packages with more weight on baggage for its Narita route to attract travelers from Nepal and Kolkata.

The Biman chief said the national flag carrier is planning to carry its passengers to Australia, the west coast of the United States and Canada with the help of other carriers via Japan through code sharing.

"We are exploring with other airlines interlinking or code sharing so that we can offer our passengers different routes beyond Japan like a 360 degree airline," Azim said.

He said currently Biman is working with Japan Airlines Ltd (JAL), All Nippon Airways and Air Canada for code sharing.

Biman working on reaching four destination - Los Angles, Vancouver, Sydney and Seoul- through code sharing.

Code sharing is a marketing arrangement in which an airline places its designator code on a flight operated by another airline, and sells tickets for that flight.

Airlines throughout the world continue to form code-share arrangements to strengthen or expand their market presence and competitive ability.

Apart from expatriate Bangladeshi community, there are about 41,000 Indians, and 1.40 lakh Nepalese nationals living in Japan.

According to the Ministry of Justice, Japan, till 2022, there were 20,954 Bangladeshis living in Japan.

Biman will operate weekly three flights with Dreamliner 787-8 and 787-9 aircrafts.

The flight will depart from Dhaka every Friday, Monday and Wednesday and from Narita every Saturday, Tuesday and Thursday.

Currently the national flag carrier is negotiating with Airbus, to purchase 10 brand new planes from the European aircraft manufacturer.

At present, Biman has a total of 21 aircraft in its fleet, of these, four are Boeing 777-300 ER, four are Boeing 787-8, two are Boeing 787-9, six are Boeing 737 and five are Dash 8-400 aircraft.