Flying Biman for a Trip to Trauma

FROM Dhaka to Kolkata and back -- by Biman! What's there to write home about such a short round trip of altogether 70 minutes? Actually, quite a lot when you count 24 hours being lost to make a 35 minute journey to and back from Kolkata. In those many hours you could have travelled almost round the world. 

In a jet-turned supersonic age Biman's monumental nonchalance in dealing with even the briefest of flights is a shame. This blights its image and with it that of the country. After all it is our national flight carrier. Here is a blow-by-blow account of the episode: a saga, as it were, of human endurance tested under exceptionally stressful circumstances.

My spouse and I were issued tickets by our travel agent for Biman's morning flight to Kolkata on April 4 and the return flight on April 11 evening to Dhaka. Just for the heck of it I called my travel agent to bring the return journey forward by one day if possible. What I heard from him was downright arbitrary and upsetting: Our tickets were rescheduled for April 4 evening flight to Kolkata and April 12 early morning flight back to Dhaka. Neither the passengers were consulted on the change of schedules nor any prior information given to them by way of obtaining their consent. What goes on between the airlines and the travel agents seems to be passenger-unfriendly at best, and a disservice to their clients at worst.

But we were stacked up against more unpleasant surprises, even greater odds. On the evening of April 4, the plane left the tarmac on time just past seven and taxied along the runway until a storm broke out with heavy rains beating down on the earth. A member of the crew announced that the take-off would be delayed up to 50 minutes. On getting weather clearance after another two hours the plane took off, navigating a turbulent passage for nearly 25 minutes of the 35-minute journey to Netaji Subash Chandra International Airport. It was well past 11 when we got through the immigration and luggage collection. We preferred to err on the side of caution staying overnight on the airport lounge.

For our return flight at 8.15 am on the 11th we were required to report for check-in around 5am. So we had arranged a 3.30 am taxi pickup to make it to the airport on time which we did. Hours ticked by -- even past 6, 7 and 8 am; no trace of the Biman check-in counter was to be seen anywhere on the huge concourse.

Meanwhile, passengers had gathered and having no clue of what lay ahead, some of us made frantic calls to station or traffic managers. Finally, the traffic manager with another official arrived on the scene. They made two points, each being heart-breaking and both amounted to breaching a minimum ethic binding a service industry to its customers. 

Literally, the Pandora's box opened: the first surprise to spring was that the 8.15 am flight had been cancelled 3 days back and that their screen showed 'informed' against each passenger. None of the passengers reported having been informed. The second version was that 8.15 pm was mistakenly indicated for 8.15 am on the ticket.

Clearly the two versions cancelled each other and these were not any authoritative, more importantly trouble-shooting, statements. It only betrayed a complete lack of coordination even in case of crisis management, patently self-created that it might have been in the first place. 

To cut it short, after 12 full hours of waiting during which breakfast and lunch were served, we would be boarding 8.30 pm flight to Dhaka. A large group of expatriate wage-earners headed for Saudi Arabia accompanied us. A Bangladeshi worker on transit was visibly concerned over expiry of visa dates should the flight be cancelled. 

The point to drive home is that dissemination of information by itself cannot condone the failure of the system unless the suffering and the loss of time have been recompensed. For flights originating in Europe a 4-hour plus delay if not caused by an act of God automatically entitles a passenger to financial compensation. And on international routes flight delays up to 8 hours must entail transfer to hotels for rest.

Compatriots still fly Biman thinking that it is something of their own. But their number is dwindling, for how long can the people stand the test of patriotism when Biman disowns them, ditches them overseas, for hours? Lamented late cricketer Riche Benaud said something like this, "As in cricket so in life, it is 90 percent luck but you do need 10 percent skill to get by well enough." There is a message for Biman – it may run out of its luck on patriotic inclinations towards it if this is strained too severely by lack of skill and coordinated management. They indeed have a captive clientele to cash in on and move forward with competent service at par with that of some competitive airlines.

The writer is Associate Editor, The Daily Star.
E-mail: husain.imam@thedailystar.net