Biman gets new Board

At long last, we see changes at the top of the management in Bangladesh Biman. It has not come a day too early, but should have come much earlier. It is sad to see the steady decline of the national carrier due to inept and incompetent management. We have a new team now and it is our hope that the moribund Biman will see a recrudescence.

We feel that a mere reshuffling of the board will not be enough for Biman to regain some of its lost glory. Over the years, the airlines has lost a lot of business to other carriers. The nagging problems associated with systemic graft and bad management calls have turned this once proud national air carrier into a service that has become more synonymous with an airline that consistently misses flight schedules and is unable to satisfy even the most basic consumer satisfaction levels.

As things stand now, the Board is largely a traditional mixture of bureaucrats from the various ministries and some business leaders. However, we feel that it should consist more people with knowledge of the airline business. There is need for responding to one of the most dynamic industries of the present world and that can only be done if the Board consists of persons who have had long years of running airlines. It is a highly competitive business and regaining passenger confidence will require a lot of changes in the way Biman does business.