United Airways resumes flights

Private carrier United Airways yesterday resumed its flight operations, which remained suspended for three weeks due to an unavailability of aircraft.

Operations recommenced with a daily flight on the Dhaka-Cox's Bazar route with an ATR-72-212 aircraft, said Foyez Ahmed, manager of public relations of the airline.

“Another domestic flight on the Dhaka-Saidpur route will resume on February 29,” he said, adding that the rest of the domestic and international flights will resume soon after the other aircraft become serviceable.

Earlier on February 4, the private carrier announced that its flights have been suspended due to an unavailability of serviceable aircraft.

Sources, however, said the aircraft were grounded for maintenance, but the airline does not have enough funds to do the required servicing, which is a matter of high costs.

United Airways was desperately seeking funds from different sources; unless the company can arrange the funds, it may not be able to resume its flights in full swing, they added.

The net operating cash flow of the airline, which was Tk 0.26 per share in July-December last year, also shows its financial weakness. It was Tk 0.40 a year earlier, according to data on the Dhaka Stock Exchange website.

The suspension also raised the sufferings of those who bought tickets with the airline.

“We have refunded the tickets of those who claimed in the meantime,” said Ahmed.

This is not the first time the private carrier suspended its flight operations. Its domestic and international flights remained suspended for several days in September 2014 over a conflict among its directors.

Set up in 2007, the airline has 11 aircraft in its fleet: two Airbus 310-325, five MD-83, three ATR-72-212 and one Bombardier Dash-8 100. It was listed on the stock exchanges in 2010.

It has permission to operate domestic flights to Chittagong, Sylhet, Jessore, Cox's Bazar, Rajshahi, Barisal, Saidpur and Ishwardi.

On the international front, it has permission to fly to Dubai, Kuala Lumpur, Kathmandu, Kolkata, Jeddah, Bangkok, Muscat and Singapore.

With market capitalisation of Tk 453.61 crore on the DSE, its shares traded between Tk 6.6 and Tk 7.1 yesterday, before closing at Tk 6.8.

Its earnings per share in the July-December period of last year were Tk 0.07, which was Tk 0.39 a year earlier.