Civil Aviation and Tourism Adviser Sk Bashir has said passenger services at the new terminal of Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) will be made ‘dignified and respectable’ standard as Bangladesh looks to be able achieve the highest international benchmarks anytime soon. 

“We have already made a decision on ground handling and will reveal it soon…likely next week,” he said.

To ensure service quality, the government is weighing the option of appointing a second international ground handler at HSIA’s newly built third terminal, alongside Biman Bangladesh Airlines, Civil Aviation and Tourism Adviser S K Bashir told UNB at the Secretariat on Thursday.

He emphasised that the goal is to foster competition and raise standards. “We want to enhance services by utilising the capacity of everyone engaged in ground handling through a coordinated approach,” he said.

“Our aim is not to make Biman uncompetitive, but at the same time we cannot let passenger services decline,” the adviser said.

Meanwhile, the final phase of a three-day negotiation between the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) and a Japanese consortium began on Thursday to settle operational matters for the new terminal.

CAAB Chairman Air Vice Marshal Mostofa Mahmud Siddiq presided over the first two sessions, while Adviser Bashir is scheduled to chair the concluding one. The discussions involve all stakeholders, including the International Finance Corporation (IFC) as transaction adviser.

According to CAAB insiders, the earlier decision to grant Biman exclusive ground-handling rights for two years had unsettled the consortium, which is seeking wider operational authority and revenue-sharing opportunities.

Under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model, they said, a Service Level Agreement (SLA) will be signed between Biman and the terminal’s private operator.

According to them, if Biman fails to meet performance benchmarks within the two-year period, the operator will be permitted to engage a reputed international ground-handling company alongside Biman, as per PPP Authority guidelines.

Ground handling has long been a contentious issue. The former Awami League government had hinted at bringing in a Japanese company after foreign airlines raised concerns over Biman’s service standards.

Currently, Biman holds a monopoly as the sole ground handler at all airports in Bangladesh, managing services for nearly 40 international carriers and generating Tk 1,000–1,200 crore annually. While officials claim improvements with new equipment and manpower, complaints from passengers and airlines over delays, inefficiencies, and occasional theft persist.

Some foreign carriers remain dissatisfied, often assigning their own staff to maintain service quality despite paying Biman’s fees.

Biman, however, remains confident. The airline handled more than 57,000 flights in 2023 and has invested Tk 1,000 crore in 3,600 new ground support equipment (GSE) units over the past year. Recruitment and training efforts are underway, with further procurement in progress, officials said.

“Several categories of equipment have already been added to Biman’s GSE fleet. Around 70 more will arrive in the coming months,” a Biman spokesperson said, cautioning that outsourcing ground handling to international firms would cause “a significant loss of national revenue.”

Built at a cost of Tk 21,300 crore with major financing from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), HSIA’s third terminal is expected to raise annual passenger handling capacity to 24 million and cargo throughput to 1.2 million tonnes.

Spanning 230,000 square metres of floor space, the facility will feature 26 boarding bridges, 115 check-in counters, 66 departure immigration desks, 59 arrival immigration desks, and three VIP immigration desks.