Biman can no longer be a law unto itself
The Daily Star's revelation of a syndicate within Biman Bangladesh Airlines that manipulated ticket prices for Malaysia-bound flights in April-May is yet another reminder of the systemic corruption that has been plaguing the national carrier. According to our report, a civil aviation ministry probe found that several Biman officials, including those at the highest levels, were complicit in blocking tickets and inflating prices. What this means is that Biman was directly responsible for the crisis that saw several thousand migrant workers failing to fly before the May 31 deadline, when the Malaysian labour market was closed for Bangladesh. This is totally unacceptable.
Reportedly, between April 15 and May 31, the price of an economy class ticket on Biman flights from Dhaka to Kuala Lumpur soared from Tk 20,475 to an outrageous Tk 73,710. It was the result of a deliberate scheme where the syndicate blocked seats—often all of them on a single plane—for the benefit of 14 travel agencies, depriving other agencies of access to tickets (a total of 480 agencies are registered with Biman). The syndication allowed these companies to sell tickets at exorbitant rates. It also led to flights departing with empty seats, while migrant workers were either forced to pay the high price or left stranded. The failure to go, having already paid enough for it, eventually plunged them into further financial hardship.
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For years, this is all Biman has been doing—causing one corruption scandal after another, and getting off scot-free. In this column, we have repeatedly commented on the airline's dysfunction, procurement and recruitment irregularities, operational inefficiencies, etc. Its decisions to purchase aircraft were also frequently criticised. Every decision it made seemed to be affected by parochial interests, while the lack of any functional accountability mechanism allowed unscrupulous officials and dubious entities to commit corruption with impunity.
Such corruption and mismanagement led to repeated financial losses, damaging our credibility and reputation on the global stage. The plight of the migrant workers denied passage in May is but the tip of a huge iceberg of sufferings caused over the years. This has to stop. The air of change brought by the recent mass uprising, which saw almost all government institutions and pillars of power being shaken, must reach Biman, too. The urgency for reforms cannot be overstated. We urge the government to take decisive actions to cleanse Biman of its corrupt elements, ensure accountability at all levels, and implement policies that can meet the demands of the new age.
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