Fly Dhaka (Dhaka) has signed a consultancy agreement with AirAsia Consulting, a unit of AirAsia Group, as it prepares to launch with a fleet of A320 Family aircraft using a low-cost carrier business model.
"Fly Dhaka secured its No Objection Certificate (NOC) in October 2021 and is currently in the final stages of securing its Air Operator's Certificate (AOC). Fly Dhaka has also made significant progress in obtaining the appropriate aircraft for its soon to be launched domestic operations. We are also excited that we will likely be the only local Airbus operator in Bangladesh, utilising AirAsia's vast experience with the A320 Family of aircraft," Chief Executive Officer M Fazle Akbar said.
The start-up did not disclose any further details concerning the size of its planned fleet or exact variants.
AirAsia Consulting Chief Executive Officer Subashini Silvadas hinted that the future cooperation between AirAsia and Fly Dhaka might exceed the scope of the consultancy agreement.
"Eventually, Fly Dhaka will also be able to tap into AirAsia's vast network and hubs to allow its passengers to connect to other places in the region," Silvadas said.
AirAsia Group said it is actively exploring opportunities "for a new local airline presence in the region". The Malaysian LCC holding currently has a marginal market presence in Bangladesh, operating just 5x weekly service from Kuala Lumpur International to Dhaka, the ch-aviation fleets module shows.
The start-up did not respond to ch-aviation's request for further information about its current launch plans.
