Biman spokesman Zahirul Huq said the aircraft were damaged as they hit each other while parked at Zia International Airport during the storm late Tuesday.

"We now have to cancel and reschedule some of our flights and are desperately trying to bring two aircraft on short lease from Singapore," he said.

He said the tail of an Airbus-300 was broken, while two others of the same type as well as a Boeing 737 and a Fokker F-28 suffered body damage.

"We don't know how long it will take to repair them, but Airbus people are on the way to Dhaka and we will try to put them back into service in the shortest possible time," Huq said.

He said 100 ground staff had held on to the tyres of the aircraft fearing they would be overturned by the strong winds.

The metereological department said the storm was a "normal tropical one" with winds of up to 116 kilometres (72 miles) per hour.

Trees and billboards were uprooted, rickshaws were overturned and power poles were brought down, plunging the city into darkness for several hours.

Biman has a fleet of 17 aircraft and flies to seven domestic and 26 international destinations.

SPACE.WIRE