Dhaka Airport: Momen blasts officials over sufferings of passengers

Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen yesterday slammed officials at Dhaka airport for the sufferings of the passengers who often have to wait for hours for their baggage upon arrival.

The minister said the complaints he heard frequently from expatriates were found to be true when he arrived at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport from Portugal yesterday.

"I arrived around 10:30am and saw long queues of passengers waiting for their luggage. I discovered that a flight from Dubai landed at 8:45am, but luggage was not put on the belt even at 10:45am," Momen told reporters at the foreign ministry later in the day.

Many of the passengers did not find any cart to carry the luggage from the belt to the exit, he said.

The minister then called the manager concerned and asked about the delays in baggage handling and why carts were not found.

"The manager said many flights landed at the same time and then there was an [end of] shift [for employees] in the morning and the employees of the next shift were yet to arrive," Momen said, adding that he got angry at that point.

"'Terminate them if they don't come on time and recruit new people,' I shouted."

He then called Mahbub Ali, the state minister for civil aviation and tourism ministry, and informed him of the passengers' sufferings.

Momen went to Rwanda to attend the 26th Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting on June 22. From there, he flew to the UK and then attended an ocean conference in Portugal.