Regent Airways (Dhaka) will be wound up over an unpaid aircraft lease. The airline, which ceased flight operations in March 2020, is one of eleven companies owned by Dhaka's Habib Group that are now being liquidated after Wilmington Trust Company initiated legal action against them in Bangladesh's High Court.
According to Bangladesh's Business Standard outlet, Wilmington applied to wind up the companies after Regent Airways defaulted on its aircraft lease payments. The other ten companies had reportedly gone guarantor for Regent Airways. Besides Wilmington, the 11 companies owe a total of BDT30 billion taka (USD283.2 million) to assorted creditors, aviation and non-aviation related. However, a search of the High Court's database suggests the dispute between Wilmington and Regent Airways goes back some years, with the matter of Wilmington Trust company vs Regent Airways and others (company matter 242/2020) having its first hearing back in November 2020.
"Because this issue is before the courts, Wilmington Trust has no comment on the matter,” according to a Wilmington Trust spokesman.
Aside from Regent Airways, the companies now being liquidated are Habib Steels Limited; Diamond Cement Limited; Legacy Fashion Limited; Regent Spinning Mills Limited; Regent Textile Mills Limited; Siam Superior Limited; HG Aviation; MTS Re Rolling Mills Limited; Anwara Paper; Mills Limited; and Regent Power Limited. All are controlled by the Habib Group, a Bangladeshi industrial conglomerate now on the downhill slide whose directors, including chairman Yakub Ali, managing director Yasin Ali, and Mashroof Habib, Salman Habib, and Tanveer Habib, all decamped from Bangladesh last year.
Regent Airways began scheduled passenger services in Bangladesh in 2010 using two B737-700s leased from ILFC. It gradually expanded its fleet and network, including to international destinations. In early 2020, the airline paused operations due to the outbreak of Covid-19. Since then, reports have emerged of it attempting to restart but that never happened. As it stands, B737-800 S2-AIO (msn 28644) and DHC-8-Q300s S2-AHA (msn 521) and S2-AHB (msn 543) currently stand derelict at Dhaka airport, the ch-aviation fleets module shows.
Wilmington's lawyers have not disclosed the amount owed but the Business Standard report implies Regent Airways had over the years, leased more than one aircraft from them. Justice Khizir Ahmed Choudhury reportedly accepted the winding up application on March 29, 2023.
