Concerns are growing among airlines and passengers over Biman Bangladesh Airlines' ground handling services, with experts questioning its ability to manage operations at the new third terminal of Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport. Biman Bangladesh Airlines claims to be offering international standard ground handling services, not only for its own flights but also for approximately 35 other domestic and international airlines. But, experts have raised doubts about its ability to handle operations at the new third terminal. What is Ground Handling? Ground handling refers to a range of services provided to aircraft and passengers at airports, including the issuing of boarding passes, baggage handling, cargo loading and unloading and general aircraft servicing. Jatiya Nagorik Committee reorganised to expand activities Since 1972, Biman Bangladesh Airlines has been the sole provider of ground handling services at all airports in the country. In addition to its own flights, Biman provides ground handling services to a variety of foreign and local carriers. Biman to Take Over Third Terminal Ground Handling Biman Bangladesh Airlines was recently informed that it would be responsible for managing ground handling services at the third terminal of Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport for the next two years. This decision was communicated through a letter issued by the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Authority under the Office of the Chief Adviser. According to the letter, Biman will handle ground services at the third terminal for the next two years. If Biman fails to meet expectations within this period, the airline may have to share the responsibility with a renowned international company. AKDN's resident representative discusses education and climate change initiatives with Foreign Adviser Complaints from Foreign Airlines Foreign airlines have raised several complaints about Biman’s ground handling services. It is the responsibility of ground handlers to provide adequate staffing for check-in counters, baggage services, cargo handling, and other related tasks at the airport. But, Biman faces difficulties providing enough staff due to a shortage of workers. As a result, several foreign airlines have been forced to hire their own ground handling staff at additional cost. For example, Air Arabia has recruited over 30 staff members at the airport, while Indigo and Singapore Airlines have hired 25 and 60 personnel, respectively. In recent hearings by the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB), several foreign airlines have accused Biman of failing to deliver timely ground handling services despite collecting charges. Delays in baggage delivery have resulted in flight delays, while passengers have expressed frustration with delayed baggage handling, tarnishing the reputation of various airlines. Passenger Complaints There are frequent reports from passengers regarding poor treatment, delayed baggage and incidents of theft at the hands of ground handling staff. One such case this year involved a passenger flying to Chennai, whose bag was found to be missing €6,800 (approximately Tk 910,000). TIB emphasises going beyond the rule of law to prevent corruption Biman authorities arrested five people in connection with the theft. A passenger from Saudi Arabia also voiced concerns, stating that receiving baggage at Dhaka airport often feels like "finding a golden deer." He expressed concerns about the possibility of items being stolen or damaged in transit. While his baggage was intact on this occasion, it still took a long time to be returned. Expert Opinions Aviation expert Wing Commander ATM Nazrul Islam also expressed concerns about Biman’s ability to handle ground services at the new terminal. While he acknowledged that Biman may have the necessary equipment, he pointed out that the airline lacks sufficient manpower. Nazrul Islam said that Biman is already struggling to manage the operations of Terminals 1 and 2, and questioned whether it could manage an entire terminal alone. He stressed that while the airline may be capable of meeting the technical requirements for ground handling, the public perception of Biman's service quality remains poor. As Biman takes over the third terminal, experts are keenly watching to see how it handles the challenges and whether it can meet international standards. Fellow expert Kazi Wahidul Alam said that in most airports around the world, ground handling is not the responsibility of a single organisation. Dr Yunus urges India to clear recent "clouds" over bilateral relations In Bangladesh, Biman monopolises ground handling across all airports. He also expressed doubts about whether Biman could properly manage ground services at the new terminal. Mofizur Rahman, Secretary General of the Aviation Operators Association of Bangladesh and Managing Director of Novoair, suggested that the monopoly on ground handling should be broken. He advocated for opening up ground handling services to multiple companies via a competitive tendering process, which could ultimately benefit both the country and the industry. Government Response In response to these concerns, Hassan Arif, an advisor to the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism, stated that Biman is in the process of acquiring new equipment to improve its ground handling capabilities. He reassured that Biman’s performance would be closely monitored during the two-year trial period. If the airline’s performance falls short, alternative arrangements will be made. Arif also emphasised the importance of ensuring that ground handling services meet international standards. Adequate training for staff and the resolution of manpower shortages would be priorities in the coming months. Regarding the timeline for the third terminal's opening, Arif stated that construction is in the final stages, and the terminal is expected to be operational within a year. In a similar vein, Air Vice Marshal Mohammad Manjur Kabir Bhuiyan, Chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB), assured that efforts are underway to ensure that the new terminal’s services meet modern standards. He also stressed that international quality in ground handling would be prioritised, ensuring that complaints from airlines and passengers are kept to a minimum. As Biman takes on the responsibility of managing ground handling services at the third terminal, all eyes will be on the airline’s ability to address existing shortcomings and deliver on its promises of international standard services.

The Biman Bangladesh Airlines has unveiled plans to introduce state-of-the-art body-worn cameras for its ground handling staff. The initiative, announced by Biman Managing Director and CEO Shafiul Azim, is expected to address longstanding allegations of pilferage, missing luggage, and passenger harassment at the Dhaka airport. Govt plans to introduce automatic fuel price adjustment in next two months: Nasrul Hamid 

Biman Bangladesh Airlines will start operating Dhaka-Rome flights from March next year, Biman MD and CEO Shafiul Azim said today (December 21, 2023). He was speaking at the ATJFB dialogue, organised by the Aviation and Tourism Journalist Forum of Bangladesh, at the Biman Training Centre in Dhaka. All Biman employees to get 5% allowance as ‘special incentive’ Mohammad Salahuddin, director (marketing) of Biman, said, "We discontinued the Dhaka-Rome flight after 2009. Now it will be resumed, for which GSA has been appointed, and ground-handling has been finalised.” “We can operate direct flights to Rome, Italy or via another country. We are studying it. It will take 9-10 hours for the direct flight to reach Rome,” he said. Biman commences flights on Dhaka-Chennai route For possible transition points, he mentioned Kuwait or Dubai. However, nothing is finalised, he said. ATJFB President and Special Correspondent of BSS, Md Tanzim Anwar, moderated the dialogue. ATJFB General Secretary and Bangla Vision Special Correspondent Ziaul Haque Sabuj delivered the welcome speech. London-bound Biman makes emergency landing in Sofia to save ailing passenger Senior officials of Biman and ATJFB members were present in the dialogue.

The High Court on Wednesday asked 17 former and incumbent officials of Biman Bangladesh Airlines to surrender before it within next three weeks in a case over embezzlement of around Tk 1100 crore in the name of taking two  Egyptian aircraft on lease. An HC bench of Justice Mustafa Zaman Islam and Justice Md Aminul Islam passed the order after hearing an interim bail petition. Advocate Khurshid Alam Khan stood for Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) in the court while counsel ARM Hasanuzzaman represented the accused. The accused are Biman Flight Operations Director Captain Ishrat Ahmed, Deputy Engineer Md Shafiqul Alam Siddique, Director General Md Abdur Rahman Fukoy, former chief Engineers Shaheed Uddin Mohammad Hanifi and Devesh Chowdhury, Engineer Md Sadekur Rahman and DGM Kamal Uddin Ahmed, among others.   All the 17accused appeared before the court with bail petitions while they were asked to surrender before it after rejecting the bail prayer. ACC Deputy Director Jesmin Akter filed the case accusing the former and incumbent officers of corruption on February 6 this year. According to the case statement, the accused in collaboration with each other misappropriated Tk 1000.61 crore in the name of taking two Egyptian aircraft on lease through misuse of their power. Engines of two Boeing-777 and-200 aircrafts of ER model went out of order one year after those were brought for five years on lease in 2014. Another engine from Egypt was also flown to operate the previous engines but it also went out of order around one and a half years of its arrival. The government had to incur a Tk 1100 crore loss over five years. These irregularities were found in an investigation carried out by the parliamentary standing committee on civil aviation and tourism ministry. Later, the committee asked the ACC to conduct more investigation into the irregularities. Read more: Biman MD's office assistant involved in question paper leak: DB chief

The office assistant of the managing director of Biman Bangladesh Airlines was found involved in leaking the question of a recruitment test of the national carrier, said Harun-ur-Rashid, Chief of DMP’s Detective Branch, on Thursday. The one-hour recruitment test of Biman was scheduled to be held on October 21, but the detectives found that the question of the test had been leaked the night before the exam. The detectives arrested five officials of Biman Bangladesh Airlines involving the case. The members of the law enforcement agencies recovered soft and hard copies of the question, bank cheques, stamped documents, four diaries, admit cards of the examinees, mobile phones and cash from the suspects. According to the suspects’ statement, Biman's MD's office assistant Zahid photocopied the question papers and took a photo of it on his phone on October 19. On the following day, copies of the question papers were supplied to two others for making several thousand photocopies. They took money in advance from someone in exchange for a question paper. They also took blank cheques, said the DB chief. Read: 5 Biman officials held for having link to question leak About Tk50 lakh were initially reported to have been traded for the question paper leak, he added. The DB chief also hinted the involvement of Biman's MD and general manager (GM) admin in the question paper leak. Harun-ur-Rashid said the MD and GM admin have not fulfilled their duty properly. “How the MD's office assistant took the photo and photocopied the question paper in his office. So, they also cannot avoid responsibility.” “Whoever is involved in the recruitment of the national flag carrier will be brought to justice. After the investigation, the chargesheet will be submitted to the court very soon,” he added.

National flag carrier Biman is now a profitable organisation, thanks to the efforts and various initiatives taken by the government, according to State Minister for Civil Aviation and Tourism Md Mahbub Ali. Addressing the 'Dialogue' program of the Bangladesh Secretariat Reporters’ Forum (BSRF), Mahbub Ali also disclosed that Biman remained profitable even during the Covid-19 pandemic, defying the norm for airlines globally. The salaries and allowances of all the Biman staff are paid from its own income, he added. The program was held Tuesday at the Secretariat in Dhaka. Mahbub Ali said Biman had taken out a Tk1,000 crore loan in the form of a government incentive during the pandemic period with soft terms. Within a year of taking the money, Biman repaid the loan with interest from its profits. “The airlines have to pay their employees from their own earnings as all authorities under the Civil Aviation Ministry are commercial and they need to bear their expenses from their own earnings,” he claimed. Read: “Will take action over allegations of corruption, nepotism in recruiting Biman pilots” The government doesn’t allocate a budget for Biman, he added. "Giants of the airline industry across the globe incurred losses during the pandemic. The tourism sector has gone through a massive disaster," the junior minister said. "But we worked relentlessly. We tried to communicate with the foreign embassies, so that Biman could survive operating cargo flights. We continued earning and Biman's accounts stayed in the black during the period." Despite the unstable global market situation and the domestic hike in fuel prices, Biman received a positive response to its newly-introduced Dhaka-Toronto-Dhaka route, and the flights on this route were fully booked, claimed Mahbub. "We want to run Biman in the right way. The flights of Biman are now departing at the right time. Those involved in irregularities would face legal action,” he further added. “We are now working to ensure service of an international standard,” he said. “To ensure it, we asked the authorities concerned to remain alert, so that passengers don't face unnecessary hassles. Also, passengers must not suffer due to extra cautionary measures.” As the prime minister directed to ensure necessary services for the passengers, the state minister and Biman’s managing director are visiting airports regularly to monitor the services, Mahbub added. Read:ACC approves charges against 3 former, 1 current Biman high-ups He is hopeful that the sufferings of the passengers will cease to a large extent once the third terminal at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka starts operating in October 2023. He also mentioned the government’s initiatives to develop the airports and cargo handling across the country. Regarding developments in the tourism sector, Mahbub Ali said the sector had faced huge losses during the pandemic. After lifting the restrictions given for the pandemic, the sector has started seeing profits again. In the first three months following the lifting of restrictions, the sector had already posted profits of around Tk 6 crores. BSRF President Tapan Bishwas presided over the programme while its General Secretary Masudul Hoque moderated.

US-Bangla Airlines, one of the largest private airlines in the country, will operate two flights on daily basis from Dhaka to Kolkata from August 4 due to the increase in passengers, said a press release signed by Md. Kamrul Islam, general manager (Public Relations) of the organisation. The airlines is currently operating one daily flight from Dhaka to Kolkata which takes off at 10:00 am and again comes back at 12:55 pm. The newly second flight will depart Dhaka for Kolkata at 6:30 pm every day from August 4 and depart from Kolkata to Dhaka at 7:35 pm IST. Read: US-Bangla to run daily flights on Dhaka-Kolkata route from March 26 The airlines will operate the flights with Boeing 737-800 aircraft on the route. The US-Bangla has a total of 16 aircraft including 6 Boeing 737-800 to its fleet. Along with the existing route, the airline plans to operate new flights on Chittagong-Kolkata and Dhaka-Delhi routes in the days coming. Ticket aspirants are asked to contact their sales points or any travel agency. Read Triplover, US-Bangla sponsor Dhaka Travel Mart 2022

The anti-corruption watchdog Wednesday approved a chargesheet against three former and one current Biman Bangladesh Airlines high-ups for their "involvement in corruption in the recruitment of pilots." The accused are Abul Munim Mosaddiq Ahmed, former Biman managing director (MD) and chief executive officer (CEO), Captain Farhat Hasan, former MD, CEO and flight operations director, Partha Kumar Pandit, former director (administration) and principal of the Bangladesh Airlines Training Center, and Fakhrul Hossain Chowdhury, manager (recruitment). Read: Biman gets new MD Muhammad Arif Sadeq, deputy director of the Anti- Anti-Corruption Commission, told UNB that the chargesheet was approved as the commission found the corruption allegations against them to be true. On November 25, 2019, ACC Assistant Director Saiful Islam filed the case against the Biman officials. According to the case statement, the accused violated the guidelines of Biman in setting the educational qualifications and age requirements for the candidates for the cadet pilot recruitment in 2018.

Three Biman Bangladesh Airlines officials have been temporarily removed from their duties over the incident of a collision between two planes at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA), the airlines’ media wing said on Friday. The collision happened on the night of July 3. The suspended officials are—Principal Engineer Md Harunur Rashid Chowdhury, Engineering Officer Shah Newaz and Junior Technical Officer Nurul Alam. Tahera Khondker, Biman’s General Manager (Public Relations), said that the three officials were suspended on July 5. Read: Biman offers chartered domestic flight service

Biman Bangladesh Airlines started selling tickets on Sunday for flights on the Dhaka-Toronto-Dhaka route as the national flag carrier is going to operate flights on the route from July 27.Passengers can buy tickets for this route from the airline's commercial www.biman-airlines.com, said Tahera Khandaker, general manager (public relations) of Biman Bangladesh Airlines.Tickets can also be collected from any of the airline's sales centers, call centers 01990997997 and airline authorised travel agencies, she said.However, the purchase of tickets from a travel agency in Canada is still in the Activation stage.The national flag carrier will operate two flights a week. The flight from Dhaka will depart every Wednesday and Sunday for Toronto and the return flight from Toronto will also depart for Dhaka on the same days.Biman's brand new Boeing 8-9 Dreamliner aircraft will be used on the Dhaka-Toronto route.The national flag carriers have already completed all formalities to operate flights on the Dhaka-Toronto-Dhaka route from July 27.Flight BG305 of Biman will depart from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka at 3:30 am (local time) every Wednesday from July 27 for Toronto and land in Toronto at 1:55 pm (local time).On Sunday, Biman will depart from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka at 3 am (local time) for Toronto and land in Toronto at 1:25 pm (local time).Flight BG306, returning from Toronto, will leave for Dhaka at 7:30 pm (local time) on Wednesday and land in Dhaka at 9:30 pm on Thursday (local time.On Sunday, Biman will leave for Dhaka at 9:00 pm (local time) and land in Dhaka at 11:00 pm on Monday (local time).