Yet another rough landing for Biman

It is quite disappointing that Biman Bangladesh Airlines, our national flag carrier, continues to make headlines for all the wrong reasons. Many incidents relating to its inefficiency and mismanagement – from making losses year after year to owing money to different organisations; from keeping new aircrafts underutilised to stopping its flights to several destinations; from providing substandard customer services to causing callous accidents at the grounds of Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) – have been reported in the media this year alone, its 50th year of service. The latest incident happened on November 17 at the HSIA where a ground handling equipment of Biman hit a Gulf Air Boeing 787, damaging the main body of the aircraft and putting it out of service. 

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Biman staffers damage Gulf Air plane

While the Biman authorities have formed a committee to investigate the incident and said they would take action against those responsible for the mishap, we wonder if doing so is enough. Shouldn't they get to the root of the problem – which has arisen from its overall inefficiency and mismanagement – by holding its higher authorities accountable and by taking steps to stop such incidents from happening again? This is not the first time something like this has happened at the HSIA. Several such incidents took place in the past due to the carelessness of Biman's ground support staff. For instance, on April 10, a Boeing 777-300ER of Biman rammed into the carrier's Boeing 737-800 while being taken into the hangar. And not only were Biman's own aircrafts damaged in such accidents. Aircrafts of other foreign carriers have also been damaged due to Biman staffers' negligence in recent years – reportedly, not so long ago, two planes of Turkish Airlines were damaged in a similar manner. 

It is because of Biman's poor reputation in ground and cargo handling services that the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) has decided to appoint an international firm at the new third terminal of the airport for the job. The questions that need to be asked here are: are Biman's ground handling staff following standard operating procedures? Do the Biman authorities provide their staff with the necessary training?

In order to prevent such negligence in the future, the government must hold Biman high-ups accountable for its overall inefficiency. And since Biman's image at home and abroad is seriously being harmed because of such callousness, it urgently needs to make changes. The good news is, Biman has earned a record amount of revenue in the past couple of months. This makes us hopeful that it can actually do better if proper plans and policies are taken and implemented, and corruption, irregularities and mismanagement inside the organisation are checked.