Passengers of Biman Bangladesh Airlines on Tuesday expressed serious resentment over frequent delay in flight schedules, artificial ticket crises, mismanagement and misconduct, saying traveling by the national flag carrier a curse. They expressed their anger to the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) during a mass hearing.
The passengers who took part in the mass hearing expressed their dissatisfaction over the service of Biman, airport authority and airline organisations. All know delayed flight schedules, artificial ticket crises, mismanagement and corruption continued engulfing Biman since long. Apart from these, some officials and employees are also allegedly misbehaving with the passengers.
Considering the situation, CAAB organised a public hearing at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on Tuesday. Md Riyadh Sarker from Cumilla while taking part in the hearing alleged that he had arrived at the airport a few hours before his flight. After a few hours of waiting, he was informed that the flight was delayed by eight hours. Riyadh also complained of misconduct by Biman officials when he inquired about the delay.
Authorities of the national flag carrier must
enhance its reputation by improving passenger
services further
Although representatives of various domestic and foreign airlines were present at the public hearing, no one from Biman was present.However, when Air Vice Marshal M Mafidur Rahman, Chairman, CAAB became furious and asked to come Biman representative within five minutes Biman's Station Manager at Shahjalal Airport Arifuzzaman Khan appeared and expressed his regret to the passengers. Mafidur Rahman also sought apology to passengers for the inconvenience, saying they would make the airline accountable for this.
Apart from Biman officials and staffs, both the in-coming and out-going air passengers are also being harassed at Dhaka airport by the immigration police personnel and customs officials. Also, various strong organised syndicates are involved with theft and cutting of luggage of homebound passengers, mainly the wage earners. Therefore, the passengers are also being humiliated due to loss of luggage and misbehaviour of a section of airport officials. If they complain to Biman authorities, instead of getting satisfactory results, they are usually harassed in
many ways.
Passengers are very important persons (VIPs) to Biman as it officials and staffs’ salaries are paid with passengers’ money. The Biman must try to respond and mitigate passengers' problems and set up various modern facilities so that the air passengers can easily avail hassle-free travel in and out from Bangladesh. Authorities of the national flag carrier must enhance its reputation by improving passenger services further. It is a responsibility of all involved in operating the national flag carrier to retain and increase reputation of Biman by further improving its passenger services.
