Biman Bangladesh to withdraw DC-10, with a special send off

Hand up who has flown a McDonnell Douglas DC-10 in their time? Well there is one carrier left operating them on a scheduled carrier basis, and that’s Biman Bangladesh Airlines.

For aviation geeks (and yes, yours truly can be amongst their ranks), Biman are preparing a send off for their DC-10s as they are due to retire them shortly

The first of their DC-10s was retired on the 10th November, and will be meeting the cutters torch locally, leaving one final aircraft. This aircraft will continue scheduled services until 7th December 2013 which will used for standby duty, covering for scheduled duties as needed.

This will continue until an undefined point in February 2014, where it will be retired when a new Boeing 777-300ER will join the Biman fleet.

The fate of the final aircraft will be a good one – rather than meeting the cutters torch, it will be donated to a museum in the United States of America.

So, Biman are scheming an interesting proposition as their DC-10 goes to the USA one final time (information Biman Bangladesh – https://www.biman-airlines.com/about/news?id=46e17663-312b-46ba-93d6-3d7e508f36b8 ):

• Seats on a last flight Dhaka to Birmingham (UK). Note this will need a technical stop somewhere.
• 2 (or more if demand requires it) one hour ‘scenic tours’ to/from Birmingham
• We are unsure if the US authorities will give us traffic rights on the Birmingham to USA sector. If they do, this will also be offered for sale.
• We are also discussing with the UK Post Office, about the carriage of ‘Last day Covers’ on the last sector Birmingham-USA, for sale at a later date.

Biman will be selling the tickets from Early January, with scenic tour flights “Subject to demand” (with the possibility of more laid on if needed).

Biman have had an interesting lives with the DC-10, but as time has gone on they are a high source of fuel and maintenance, and have contributed their fair share of delays on the Biman long haul network. Things have improved with the fleet modernisation (focusing on  Boeing 777-300ER, The 737-800, with 787s to join the fleet from 2016).

The DC-10 has had a turbulent career (with incidents with the cargo door leading to flights ending badly and the type certificate being withdrawn for a period). These days, DC-10s can be found working hard for cargo airlines mainly.

The last major withdrawal of DC-10s were with Northwest Airlines in 2007. However there are innovative uses of DC-10s today – the fire-fighting DC-10 Air Tanker (operated by 10 Tanker) as well as the Orbis DC-10 Flying Eye Hospital.

Those of you who like three engines instead of two or four can fly MD-11s with KLM Royal Dutch Airlines for some time to come (as well as various private jets), but for those of you wanting to travel around Asia, hunting for three engines to take you somewhere will become a lot harder after 7th December …

• Data: Biman
• DC-10 notes via Wikipedia.
• HT: Raphael Cockx via Twitter

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