In an Online forum, Bangladeshi State Minister for Civil Aviation and Tourism Mahbub Ali said that the government would provide support with necessary stimulus packages to rescue the domestic carriers from the beleaguered state due to the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic.
“The government must stand beside the airlines and will do whatever necessary for their survival,” he said while speaking at a webinar titled “Bangladesh Aviation Sector amid Pandemic: Challenges and Way Out” on Saturday afternoon.
An webinar organized by the Aviation and Tourism Journalists Forum of Bangladesh (ATJFB) saw the discussion on range of challenges posed on the sector due to air travel disruption resulted by the pandemic, where country’s aviation regulators and airlines operators took an active participation.
The top brass of the three bangladeshi airlines, Biman Bangladesh airlines, US-Bangla Airlines and Novoair had the same view that the second wave of Covid-19 is lethal to the efforts of recovery from the current battered state of aviation and travel.
Biman Bangladesh CEO Abu Saleh Mostafa Kamal said that the state owned airline has lost 43% capacity, while US-Bangla Airlines managing director Abdullah Al Mamun said they have lost 70% and 54% capacity in international and domestic routes respectively.
Mamun also said although flights on different international routes remained suspended for more than an year, they are bound to pay huge sums of money to CAAB as different charges.
“Under these circumstances, it’s impossible for us to survive,” said chief of US-Bangla Airlines, the country’s largest private carrier in terms of fleet numbers.
Novoair Managing Director Mofizur Rahman urged the government to give them some time to pay different charges for now.
“Allow us time to pay the current charges. We will pay all those charges as arrears when the situation becomes normal, he also added, aeronautical, non-aeronautical and other charges imposed by the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh are much higher compared to the neighbouring countries.
CAAB chairman and the Aviation and tourism Secretary assured that they would discuss with the stakeholders on reducing various charges affecting the airlines and operators.
The CAAB chairman also said that they would further increase their surveillance so that no foreign airline or local travel agent can charge extra money on ticket fare in the current condition.
You may like to read.....
