By I.H.Sharif :
The lead news item of a national English daily in Dhaka on the 10th of October was headlined as, “Biman likely to be grounded for losses.” As I have been covering news-stories of aviation and tourism for long, I got interested in the news item and carried a copy of the daily with me for analysis, but going through the news item I found nothing that could justify Biman’s grounding. In the lead story, there were sweeping remarks like ‘corruption’ and ‘mismanagement’ galore.
The only genuine thing that the lead story contained was Biman’s incurring losses of BDT 1,400 crore during the past few years. But did Biman, the national flag carrier, incur such huge losses because of corruption or mismanagement?
About a decade ago, Biman was overburdened with staff and much of the carrier’s earnings used to be eaten up for paying salaries and wages of the excess and unnecessary work force. Eventually as per suggestion of the World Bank, Biman management resorted to retrenchment through golden handshake and the number of Biman employees was almost halved to about 3,500 persons.
In fact, Biman’s credit is that it does everything with its own earnings without depending on any governmental financial assistance. For procuring as many as 10 Boeing aircraft for 1.3 billion dollars, the national flag carrier has not had any financial assistance from the government.
Four of the Boeing 777-300 aircraft have already joined Biman’s fleet, two more Boeing 737s will join Biman’s fleet by the end of this year, two Boeing 787s will join the fleet in 2017 and the last two of the ordered Boeing 737s will join Biman’s fleet by the year 2019 next. Biman has an option of procuring 10 more Boeing aircraft in future.
It will not be irrelevant to mention here that in 2012 Indian government gave a huge fund of 30,000 crore (300 billion) Indian rupees for bailing out Air India, the Indian national flag carrier that has been formed through merger of Air India and Indian Airlines.
Unlike Air India, if Biman is not bailed out, it will continue to incur losses for long. But in any case, the carrier must not be grounded because such a move will damage the nation much more than the losses it incurs now. Private airlines in Bangladesh will lag far behind while competing with foreign airlines operating air services to and from Bangladesh in case of Biman’s stoppage of air services.
What Biman Bangladesh Airlines has succeeded in doing with its own earnings and without getting any financial assistance is definitely praiseworthy.
Like Air India, if Biman Bangladesh Airlines too gets financial assistance from the government of Bangladesh, it will be possible for the national flag carrier to earn profit instead of incurring losses.
Anybody can understand that if Biman can earn profit, it will definitely pay taxes to the government instead of taking financial assistance from it.
The lead news item of a national English daily in Dhaka on the 10th of October was headlined as, “Biman likely to be grounded for losses.” As I have been covering news-stories of aviation and tourism for long, I got interested in the news item and carried a copy of the daily with me for analysis, but going through the news item I found nothing that could justify Biman’s grounding. In the lead story, there were sweeping remarks like ‘corruption’ and ‘mismanagement’ galore.
The only genuine thing that the lead story contained was Biman’s incurring losses of BDT 1,400 crore during the past few years. But did Biman, the national flag carrier, incur such huge losses because of corruption or mismanagement?
About a decade ago, Biman was overburdened with staff and much of the carrier’s earnings used to be eaten up for paying salaries and wages of the excess and unnecessary work force. Eventually as per suggestion of the World Bank, Biman management resorted to retrenchment through golden handshake and the number of Biman employees was almost halved to about 3,500 persons.
In fact, Biman’s credit is that it does everything with its own earnings without depending on any governmental financial assistance. For procuring as many as 10 Boeing aircraft for 1.3 billion dollars, the national flag carrier has not had any financial assistance from the government.
Four of the Boeing 777-300 aircraft have already joined Biman’s fleet, two more Boeing 737s will join Biman’s fleet by the end of this year, two Boeing 787s will join the fleet in 2017 and the last two of the ordered Boeing 737s will join Biman’s fleet by the year 2019 next. Biman has an option of procuring 10 more Boeing aircraft in future.
It will not be irrelevant to mention here that in 2012 Indian government gave a huge fund of 30,000 crore (300 billion) Indian rupees for bailing out Air India, the Indian national flag carrier that has been formed through merger of Air India and Indian Airlines.
Unlike Air India, if Biman is not bailed out, it will continue to incur losses for long. But in any case, the carrier must not be grounded because such a move will damage the nation much more than the losses it incurs now. Private airlines in Bangladesh will lag far behind while competing with foreign airlines operating air services to and from Bangladesh in case of Biman’s stoppage of air services.
What Biman Bangladesh Airlines has succeeded in doing with its own earnings and without getting any financial assistance is definitely praiseworthy.
Like Air India, if Biman Bangladesh Airlines too gets financial assistance from the government of Bangladesh, it will be possible for the national flag carrier to earn profit instead of incurring losses.
Anybody can understand that if Biman can earn profit, it will definitely pay taxes to the government instead of taking financial assistance from it.
