Airline passengers are set to pay extra money for traveling as the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) has imposed new fees styled "passenger safety fee" and "airport development fee".
As per the CAAB decision, passengers will have to pay US$ 6 for passenger safety and US$ 5 as airport development while flying to SAARC countries, but while flying to other countries passengers have to pay US$ 10 for both.
For domestic travel the amount is Tk 70 and Tk 100 for both as determined by the concerned authority.
CAAB Chairman, Air Vice Marshal Mofidur Rahman said, ‘Airport development fee and security fee will be effective from next Sunday. Passenger safety fees and airport development fees are being levied on all outbound passengers using Bangladesh's airports for the purpose of passenger safety, service enhancement and infrastructural development of airports.
Aviation expert, Kazi WahidulAlam, said "Increasing these charges and fees will not only increase the cost of immigration but also have an impact on all kinds of passengers. To develop quality and service, the concerned authority can impose these charges, but it is not the right time as all airliners are suffering from the effects of coronavirus".
On the other hand, Biman Bangladesh Airlines, solely responsible for ground handling at HazratShahjalal International Airport (HSIA) is also going to increase its ground handling charges.
According to the concerned, Biman is forcefully conducting the ground handling work. In all countries of the world, the Civil Aviation Authority provides ground handling services when the planes of different airlines land at the airport. But biman has been dominating since the beginning.
Even many international organizations raised questions about this, but the national flag carrier is not paying heed.
An official of the airline on condition not to be named said that the decision to increase various ground handling charges was taken at a meeting of the airline's executive board on April 19 to deal with the outbreak of coronavirus and its global spread. A letter was sent to the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism to inform it about the increase in charges. It is learned that the issue of price increase is now under consideration of the ministry.
In this regard, WahidulAlam said, "Most of the airlines are closed due to the outbreak of coronavirus. Due to this, the fares of the airlines have also increased a lot. In this context, development fees and security fees could have been imposed at other times.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has also protested such fee imposing. Due to authorities’ decision, aircraft are using 70 percent of their total capacities for which ticket price has also increased. In this situation such a decision may lead towards disaster".
It is to be noted, the government has been trying to impose airport development fees and security fees for the last three years. Although a proposal in this regard was sent to the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism from Civil Aviation two years ago, the government took time to fix the fee.
In this regard, WahidulAlam, said, when many foreign countries are providing incentives for their airlines to survive, CAAB should do the same thing for the betterment of the country's aviation sector.
