A lack of available aircraft and a general preference by lessors to deal with larger carriers is constraining growth at NovoAir (VQ, Dhaka), according to its managing director, Mofizur Rahman.
"We have not yet fulfilled the expectations I had as managing director," he told Dhaka's Daily Star. "Our fleet size and the number of international destinations should have been larger by now. I take full responsibility for not meeting these goals."
NovoAir operates a fleet of five ATR72-500s between Dhaka, Chittagong, Cox's Bazar, Jessore, Rajshahi, Saidpur, and Sylhet. As previously reported in ch-aviation, Rahman had wanted to expand the fleet with A321-200s.
"But due to the unavailability of this type, we revised our plan, to add A320-200s instead," he said. "However, we still haven't been able to secure these aircraft for lease. We then considered leasing B737s. But the global shortage of these aircraft has also hindered our efforts. Despite the challenges, we have continued our search since May last year."
Rahman said NovoAir had considered wet leases but determined they were not commercially viable. He says lessors are generally unwilling to commit to wet leases of more than six months and Bangladeshi aviation regulations also make longer wet leases difficult.
Rahman says when talking to lessors about dry leases, he noted a preference by lessors to deal with larger airlines and also concerns that Bangladeshi operators would have difficulties meeting the monthly lease payments.
"When an aircraft becomes available for lease, major airlines tend to grab it quickly, leaving lessors less willing to lease to smaller airlines," he said. Citing the local shortage of US currency, Rahman said lessors "raised questions about how we would be able to make payments."
Rahman said it may take another year to source the aircraft he wants. He also wants to upgrade the ATR72-500s to ATR72-600s but claims that ATR - Avions de Transport Régional has supply chain issues, particularly around spare parts, that is impacting the current fleet. According to ch-aviation fleets data, two of NovoAir's five ATRs are out-of-service.
Rahman told ch-aviation this week that there are some prospects of locking in an aircraft deal in the first half of this year and that the carrier was in preliminary discussions with lessors.
When NovoAir eventually gets its jets, Rahman says he would like to expand NovoAir's operations to include several international airports, including Kuala Lumpur International, Bangkok Suvarnabhumi, Singapore Changi, Dubai International, Sharjah, and Muscat.
