Many airports in Asia lead the world in terms of amenities and service, whereas the concerned authorities failed to uphold the ‘standard’ level of Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport [HSIA] for the reasons best known to them.
Minister comes and Minister goes, and the crises deepen day by day due to their incessant incapability and inexperience. In the course of time, the HSIA has become a major headache not only for the government, but also to the general people.
In terms of service and facility, the HSIA is now less standard than some ‘international bus terminals’ in the world. Corrupt officials make one’s travelling expensive and unpleasant at the HSIA, sources said.
It is to be noted that, the SleepingInAirports.net last year graded HSIA as ninth worst airport in Asia based on travellers votes. The situation is still not changed a bit despite a number of aesthetic and technical improvements over the last few years!
If anyone enters the HSIA, his pain would be exacerbated seeing long pushy line-ups, broken baggage carousels, broken trolleys, pile of wastes, dirty washrooms with lack of toilet paper and soap. Not only that, mosquitoes are seemed the official welcoming party at the airport.
Although the government is working hard to make the country digitalized, getting Wi-Fi signal inside the terminal is harder even after paying fees.
Anyone who comes to Bangladesh for the first time will have to face brokers if he wants to exchange foreign currency into local currency inside the airport. There are several currency exchange booths both of private agencies and local banks in the terminal, but the brokers control the business due to the relaxed mood of law enforcement agencies.
There is a restaurant at the first floor of the airport for departure passengers just after the immigration zone which is too expensive. Besides, there are a couple of cafes near the departure enclosure area for light refreshments where visitors coming for bidding farewell to their near ones often face awkward situation due to the high price of food.
If any passenger, especially elderly person, needs special support like in carrying the baggage, most of the time he does not get any help from the ‘Helpline’ services.
Even the passengers who want their baggage to be protected from pilferage or scratches by wrapping with polythene, they have to face severe problem due to lack of service by the airport authorities. A private organization provides the wrapping service, but they take high payment of Taka 500-1000 per baggage.
A single visitor needs to pay Tk 250 to enter the airport terminal. In fact, the visitors are discouraged to enter the terminal. Every year a private company takes lease of the gates [entry and exit] paying several crores of taka to the Civil Aviation Authority, Bangladesh [CAAB]. So, from the first day they remain busy to get return of their invested money.
According to the sources, inefficient air cargo and parcel handling at HSIA along with lack of a secure warehouse to keep inbound-outbound goods is adversely affecting the country’s foreign trade too.
Businessmen have alleged that after unloading from the aircraft, the cargo, parcel or documents sometimes go missing due to insecurity in movement. The HSIA has been suffering from inadequate manpower and other logistics to clear parcels and documents timely.
The worst thing in the HSIA is its security affairs where the scanner machine is a tool of harassment to common passengers.
On the other hand, the airport is used for smuggling of goods, especially gold, worth billions of taka by the international crime syndicate.
Apart from airport’s 12 gates, there are some small points through which smuggled goods enter and exit frequently. Particularly, lack of skilled manpower to operate some security equipment like ‘in-built heavy luggage scanners’ in conveyor belts, vehicle scanners in the exit gates and ‘mega body scanners’ have made the smuggling easier.
The HSIA is now openly used for trans-national crime where Bangladesh has become a transit destination for international smuggling syndicates.
Against this backdrop, the UK banned air cargo directly from Dhaka in the second week of March this year as HSIA failed to meet international security requirements. In the same way, Australia had also imposed ban on air cargo [heavier than 500kgs] from Bangladesh from December 19 last year.
Both the ban had hit hard the country’s business sector. The UK stopped importing several perishable items, including vegetate. Australia also stopped taking apparel items. Bangladesh last year exported products worth $606.88 million to Australia where apparel items were 88 percent of the total export.
Aviation security experts from the UK and the US had inspected the HSIA twice in November and December in 2015 and found “serious security lapses and risks”. Particularly, they were concerned about cargo screening and management at HSIA that is handled by the Biman, which is now widely criticized for mismanagement.
