The Civil Aviation Authority, Bangladesh (CAAB) is owed Tk 1223 crore by four private airlines. Out of these four airlines, three are currently closed. The amount the three closed airlines owe is over Tk 1192 crore. This information was divulged in the meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism on Sunday (September 17, 2023) held at the Sangsad Bhaban. Also read: Irregularities in leasing Egypt Air planes: ACC questions 7 CAAB officials The Parliamentary Committee on Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism wanted to know how much money CAAB owes or is owed  in their dealings with domestic private airlines companies. CAAB gave a report in this regard in the parliamentary standing committee meeting today with its chairman RAM Obaidul Muktadir Chowdhury in the chair. According to the sources, CAAB in its report said that it is owed a total of Tk 1,222.98 crore by Regent Airways, Novo Air, United Airways and GMG Airlines. Among them, only Novo Air still flies. As of last May, two other private airlines, US Bangla and Air Astra, both of which are still in business, have no debt.  Also read: Civil Aviation Ministry asked to take action against CAAB officials for irregularities CAAB is owed more than Tk 408 crore by Regent Airways, while GMG Airlines owes more than Tk 396 crore. CAAB is owed Tk 388.97 crore by United Airways and from Novo Air it is owed Tk 29.48crore. After the meeting, a press release of the Parliament Secretariat informed that the parliamentary committee has recommended taking necessary measures to collect the money owed by the private airlines. Meanwhile, the report of the sub-committee on the investigation of the Hotel Intercontinental renovation project which was presented in the previous meeting of the committee was in the discussion list of today’s meeting. The report claimed that it was not needed to spend exorbitantly on the renovation works. Also read:  ACC finds 19 areas of corruption in Biman, Caab Government money has been unnecessarily spent for the benefit of certain people, the report said. According to the report, the rooms of 26 square meters has been increased to 40 square meters. As a result, the number of rooms was reduced to 226 from 272. The report claims that this was not necessary. Apart from this, the committee recommended to widen the road from Cox's Bazar airport to the city on an urgent basis and improve its beauty, maintain the cleanliness of the beach and implement the activities with mutual coordination. The committee members Mosharraf Hossain, Ashek Ullah, Syeda Rubina Akhtar, Kaniz Fatema Ahmed were present in the meeting.

The government has confiscated the bank account of Regent Airways to collect the dues of Tk 32.46 crore, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said in parliament on Tuesday. Responding to a tabled question from Awami League MP Mohammad Habib Hasan, the minister said that Regent Airways owes the government Tk 32.46 crore in travel tax, but Tk 1.37 crore has been recovered by confiscating the bank account. Read more: United Airways reiterates commitment to revive the airline In his question, Habib Hasan wanted to know whether there is any unpaid dues of travel tax from domestic airlines. He also wanted to know what steps the government has taken to collect the dues. Due to Regent Airways being shut down, the dues remain unpaid. Their bank accounts were seized to collect the unpaid dues, the finance minister said. Read more: 'Air Incheon-Korean Airlines’ introduces direct cargo flight from Bangladesh to South Korea In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, Regent Airways postponed all its international and domestic flight operations in 2020.

Following India’s decision suspending all visas, barring a select few categories, Biman Bangladesh Airlines and three private airlines have announced to halt all of their flights to India from March 14 to April 15.