DHAKA -- Biman Bangladesh Airlines, the South Asian nation's flag carrier, signed an agreement on Wednesday to buy 10 Airbus aircraft, lifting its planned purchases from both the European company and Boeing to 35 planes as it pushes to expand its international network.

The deal covers four A350-900 wide-body airplanes and six A321neo narrow-body jets. The Airbus purchases mark a major shift for state-owned Biman, whose ageing fleet of 19 aircraft has long been dominated by Boeing planes. The buying spree comes as the airline aims to increase its market share after years of decline and looks to strengthen its international presence.

The price of the Airbus deal has not been disclosed, but multiple sources estimate it to be about $2 billion.

"This is not simply a commercial agreement," M. Rashiduzzaman Millat, minister of civil aviation and tourism, said at theg ceremony. "I consider it to represent our ambition to establish Biman as a modern, competitive and globally connected airline across the world.

"These new-generation aircraft will give Biman greater flexibility to match aircraft capacity with market demand and route requirements," he added.

The carrier earlier this year ordered 14 Boeing jets eight 787-10 Dreamliners, two 787-9s and four 737-8s -- for $3.7 billion in what the American plane-maker called Biman's largest-ever aircraft purchase. It subsequently ordered another five 787-10s and six 737-8s for an undisclosed cost. "Biman's vision is to become an effective international airline.

Keeping that vision in mind, they are moving forward [with the Airbus purchases]," said A.B.M. Mahbub Alam, additional secretary at the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism.

"For a long time, Biman did not update its fleet adequately," the official continued, noting that this had curbed the carrier's ability to meet demand.

The share of the international passenger market from Bangladesh of the country's carriers -- which also includes US-Bangla Airlines -- has fallen to around 25% from the low thirties in 1990, said Nazrul Islam, an aviation expert and retired Bangladesh Air Force pilot, leaving foreign rivals with much of the business.

"If we want to restore the country's market share, we need capacity. That is a fact. There is nothing controversial about it," he said.

Millat said on Tuesday that the government wants delivery of the Airbus aircraft to begin before 2030. The Boeing jets are scheduled to be delivered between 2031 and 2035.

Although some have criticized the spurt of orders, Mahmud Hussain, former chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh, said the 35-aircraft plan was not necessarily excessive.

"If the aircraft are delivered phase by phase and the fleet plan extends to 2040, it is quite reasonable -- provided they have a strategic plan for fleet planning," Hussain said.

A major challenge will be making sure Biman has the people and infrastructure to run the expanded fleet.

"There are a number of requirements to operate these aircraft. First of all, you need pilots. Secondly, you need aircraft maintenance engineers," Hussain said, adding that Bangladesh would need to expand pilot training and engineering facilities to meet the demand.

There have also been concerns over the reliability of Biman's existing fleet. A Boeing inspection report in 2025 identified shortages of spare parts, maintenance tools and skilled workers at the airline. The report also said Biman had a high number of deferred maintenance items -- fixes to nonessential systems that have been postponed -- and that some technical problems occurred at much higher rates than in Boeing's global fleet.

"If Boeing has identified deficiencies, Biman certainly has to address them," Nazul said. Biman has not commented on the Boeing report.

Indeed, experts have said that Bangladesh's air-travel ecosystem needs much broader investment to develop into an aviation hub. During a meeting on Tuesday with a delegation from Lufthansa Group, owner of the German national carrier, Millat floated the idea that the company could invest in a maintenance, repair and overhaul facility and work with Biman to develop skilled aviation workers.

The sector's expansion would also require stronger regulatory capacity, Hussain said. A stronger and more autonomous regulator would be needed to ensure the industry can meet international standards and support a growing fleet.

Nazrul said Biman also needs to rethink how it uses its fleet by moving beyond a point-to-point network and developing a hub-and-spoke model. He also argued that it should not simply wait for the newly ordered aircraft to arrive.

"Instead, it should immediately lease aircraft and capture the market," he said. "For me, whether it is 25 or 30 aircraft is not the main issue. What matters more is the marketing tools, revenue management, operating revenue and cash-flow management." However, these hub ambitions face a challenge from the state of Bangladesh's airports. Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka, the largest in the country, regularly sees long wait times and has also recently been hit by allegations of luggage thefts and gold smuggling.

"We say that we want to become a hub, but look at what happened at the airport recently," said Sakib Ali, a foreign policy analyst and former diplomat. "You can see for yourself that we do not have the managerial ability to operate a hub. ... We have not been able to demonstrate it over the past 40 years" Meanwhile, the aircraft purchases have raised questions about Bangladesh's exposure to geopolitical forces. The Boeing deals came after U.S. pressure over trade and tariffs.

"You may have considered the Boeing deal convenient, otherwise why would you have signed it? But in seeking that convenience, you have also opened yourself up to pressure from Europe," Ali said. "Europe is effectively saying: If you buy Boeing under American pressure, we will also put pressure on you, because we buy a lot of garments from you." Masum Billah is a contributing writer.