Biman Bangladesh Airlines’ latest deal to acquire 11 additional Boeing aircraft will cost nearly US$2.5 billion, a senior official familiar with the procurement has told Aviation Express, although neither Biman nor the government has officially disclosed the price.

The supplementary agreement for five Boeing 787-10 Dreamliners and six 737-8s was signed in New York last week on the sidelines of the 81st United Nations General Assembly.

The senior official, requesting anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, also disclosed that Biman’s techno-finance committee conducted only a limited assessment of the additional Boeing proposal before the agreement was signed.

“What I can say is that we did not go through any extensive assessment of Boeing’s additional deal,” the official told Aviation Express.

Neither Biman nor the government has so far disclosed the negotiated unit prices, financing arrangements, payment terms or delivery schedule for the latest acquisition.

Boeing no longer publishes current aircraft list prices. Based on its last publicly available 2019 list-price benchmarks, five 787-10s and six 737 MAX 8s would carry a combined historical list value of about US$2.42 billion.

Historical list prices do not represent actual transaction prices, as major aircraft purchases are generally subject to negotiated discounts and commercial concessions. The nearly US$2.5 billion figure therefore raises questions over the final negotiated terms and what concessions Biman secured.

The latest agreement follows Biman’s April 30 order for 14 Boeing aircraft - eight 787-10s, two 787-9s and four 737-8s - valued at approximately US$3.7 billion at list prices.

Together, the two agreements take Biman’s Boeing commitments this year to 25 aircraft — 13 787-10s, two 787-9s and 10 737-8s.

Meanwhile, a separate proposal to acquire 10 Airbus aircraft remains on the table, with Biman considering four A350-900 widebody aircraft and six A321neo narrowbody jets as part of its longer-term fleet expansion.

If the Airbus proposal proceeds, Biman could have 35 new aircraft in its acquisition pipeline, almost twice the size of its existing 19-aircraft fleet.

The scale of the planned expansion, alongside the absence of publicly disclosed commercial terms for the latest Boeing deal, is likely to sharpen scrutiny over pricing, financing, aircraft selection and the commercial rationale behind Biman’s multi-billion-dollar fleet expansion.