Biman Bangladesh Airlines started operating flights from Dhaka to Tokyo, Japan in 1980. That operation was stopped shortly due to lack of passengers. In the second phase, flights on this Dhaka-Tokyo/Narita route were re-introduced in the late 1990s. But that flight was discontinued in 2006 due to continuous loosing money. And after 17 years, the Dhaka-Narita flight resumed again last year. This time Biman Bangladesh Airlines is experiencing something different. The national flag carrier has been able to attract passengers this time. Low fare package is one of the main reasons. And passengers are happy about it. A segment of airline officials are also happy about this.

The minimum one-way fare for Dhaka to Narita route is fixed at Tk 70,828 and the minimum price with return ticket is fixed at Tk 111,656 per person. 
This low cost not only attracted Bangladesi passengers but also the citizens of India and Nepal are selecting Biman as their flight for Japan. 

A statistics says, more than 100,000 Nepalis are presently working in Japan. Apart from this, Indians are also present there in a large number. Since there are no direct flights between Japan and these two countries and as the fares are so low, Biman is now the preferred airline for the citizens of these two countries.
 
Recently a journalist from Dhaka, Rakib Hasnat, visited Japan with family using the Biman’s flight. Later in a social media post he described his experience mentioning about the response of passengers on this route. He termed it as a "great decision" by the Biman Bangladesh Airlines, saying that most of the passengers on the fligt were from Nepal and Kolkata.
 
Because of this route, the Indians and Nepalese are using Dhaka as a transit which gives an added value to it, Rakib Hasnat opined. 

Dhaka-Narita route flight started in September last year. After that, Biman is getting good response from the passengers on this route. However, Biman insiders said the route is still a loosing concern despite having passengers at fullest. 

Why? While asked a commercial officer of Biman on the condition of anonymity said, three flights a week are being operated by the world's most advanced Dreamliner aircraft and Biman is successful in the initial phase by attracting passengers due to the low fare package. But even if the aircraft is full with this fare, the airline will not able to make a profit. That is why, he said, the fare must be increased. We need to observe whether Biman gets same number of passengers after increasing the fare if the passengers are not turning away, then at the second phase of this flight operation will be successful. But to make profit Biman will have to take it to the third phase by increasing fare more. 

This Biman official said that even with 50 per cent of passenger capacity, a flight on a route can be profitable if the fares are fixed at internationally standard rate. And if the flights are full but the fares are low, it will be difficult to make the operations profitable.

Passengers are now interested because the air fares are low. The official said that other airliners are charging a much higher amount than Biman on this route. That is why some passengers are choosing it. If the fares are increased, they may turn away, he said.

Aviation experts say that flights like Narita need to target Nepalese and Indian passengers to make them profitable. In that case the transit visa should be revoked. Then passengers from these two countries will get better response.

Biman's managing director and chief executive officer Shafiul Azim told Barta24.com that the Narita flight is getting a very good response.

Apart from Kathmandu, passengers are coming from Delhi, Kolkata. Moreover, if we can make it possible for passengers to reach Vancouver, Canada through code sharing on this route, then there will be better response, Biman CEO said.