Biman Bangladesh Airlines subsidiaries include a number of ancillary and maintenance facilities established to facilitate operations of Biman Bangladesh Airlines, the national carrier of Bangladesh. Among these subsidiaries are Biman Flight Catering Centre, Biman Engineering Hangar, Bangladesh Airline Training Centre, and the Biman Poultry Complex.[1] To turn these commercial ventures independently profitable the engineering division of Biman Bangladesh has been separated from the commercial division in 2004.[2]
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Biman Flight Catering Centre (BFCC) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Biman Bangladesh Airlines that was set up in 1989. The BFCC provides Biman's in-flight meals and is one of Biman's profitable operations, regularly supplying food to British Airways, Qatar Airways, Dragonair, Uzbekistan Airways and Iran Air along with casual orders from other airlines operating in Bangladesh.[3][4]
The BFCC consumes 90% of the eggs and chicken from the Biman Poultry Complex (BPC), another profit-making subsidiary of Biman formed in 1976 and put into operation in November 1980 to rearing poultry at farms in Dhaka.[3][4] Bird flu was detected at one of the farms in March 2007 which resulted in many livestock being culled.[5] This was the first incident of bird flu in Bangladesh. Poultry industry in Bangladesh was partly pioneered by the Biman subsidiary in the mid-1970s, though the first poultry in Bangladesh was a private venture named Eggs and Hens established in 1964.[6] The medium sized breeder set up by BPC eventually led to NGOs and the government coming forward to develop the sector in early 1990.[7] 694 are employed at BFCC and 90 in Biman Poultry Complex at Savar, 40 km North-West of Dhaka City, on 75 acres (300,000 m2) of land including 5 acres (20,000 m2) poultry shed, 1-acre (4,000 m2) residential area and 69 acres (280,000 m2) of agricultural land.[4][8]
Biman Bangladesh Airlines Training Center (BATC) trains ground crews, flight service crews and technical personnel. It also arranges training and technical seminars for other agencies.[4]