Twelve long-abandoned aeroplanes at Dhaka's Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport will be put up for auction soon. If the desired price is not obtained in the auction, they will be sold in parts.
Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) sources confirmed the matter to media on Monday.
A committee has already been formed to fix the auction procedure. The committee has also provided recommendations for the auction.
According to CAAB officials, a total of 12 aeroplanes are currently abandoned at the airport. 10 of them have been occupying a large part of the cargo village for the last 8 years. These abandoned planes cause problems in loading and unloading cargo. Therefore, for a long time, CAAB was looking for a way to empty the place. A four-member committee has recently recommended auctioning off the planes.
According to Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport officials, there are currently eight aircraft of United Airways, two of Regent Airways, one of GMG Airlines, and one aircraft of Aviana Airlines at the airport. All of them, except the Regent Airways aeroplanes, have been in the same position for the last eight years.
Group Captain AHM Touhid-ul Ahsan, executive director of Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, said, “If the airlines do not remove the planes from there and do not pay the money, then the chairman has the power to confiscate and auction off the planes as per the rules of civil aviation. The airlines have been asked several times to pay the fees or to have the planes removed. They were also warned about confiscation, but they did not respond”.
“The aeroplanes have been de-registered. The auction will be held in accordance with the procedure recommended by the committee in this regard”, he added.
According to officials, United Airways owes CAAB Tk 190 crore, GMG Airlines Tk 360 crore, and Regent Airways owes Tk 200 crore to CAAB.
