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HAJJ FLIGHT

Biman too asks for fare over fixed rate

REAZ AHMAD
Uncertainty over Hajj by thousands of people took a turn for the worse yesterday with the state-run Biman Bangladesh Airlines too now calling for the government to raise the cabinet-fixed Hajj fare from $950 to $1,250.
Foreign and private airlines have already declined to operate Hajj flights in less than $ 1250 for a pilgrim.
Five foreign and nine private airlines in their quotations submitted on October 30 for Hajj flights quoted fares as high as $1,250 to $1,360.
If the Wednesday's cabinet meeting agrees to increase the fare, pilgrims from Bangladesh would have to count an extra cost to make the pilgrimage to Mecca.
After a meeting with the representatives of foreign and private airlines at his ministry yesterday, State Minister for Civil Aviation and Tourism Mir Mohammad Nasir Uddin told The Daily Star, "We'll ask the cabinet for upward revision of Hajj fare, otherwise Biman will have to absorb a loss of Tk 20 crore, ferrying 4,000 ballotee pilgrims to Jeddah."
The weekly cabinet meeting, usually held on every Monday, has been rescheduled for Wednesday, as Prime Minister Khaleda Zia was away to perform Umrah.
Mir Nasir, who also accompanied the premier during her Saudi visit, returned home yesterday and forwarded a supplementary agenda to the cabinet division for hiking Hajj fare as the agenda for tomorrow's cabinet meeting had already been fixed.
Five foreign airlines--Gulf Air, Qatar Airways, Singapore Airlines, Saudi Arabian Airlines and Emirates--quoted as high as $1350 to $1360 for carrying a pilgrim to Saudi Arabia while South Asian Airlines and Air Bangladesh, two out of nine private airlines, quoted $1250, said sources at the civil aviation ministry.
While the five foreign airlines would all together be able to carry 12,000 intending pilgrims, the two private airlines have offered to carry 30,000 more by chartered planes. These would supplement Biman's capacity of carrying 4,000 pilgrims.
Still the number of pilgrims to be carried would fall short of the religious affairs ministry's estimate of 60,000 people intending to perform Hajj in January 2006.
Biman sources told The Daily Star yesterday that in the last resort it would suspend its other international flights including the one on Dhaka-New York route for several weeks to fly the pilgrims to Saudi Arabia and bring them back.
Last year, Biman ferried over 23,000 pilgrims to Saudi Arabia at a fare of $950 each and incurred a loss of Tk 21 crore. Biman fears it would suffer almost the same amount of losses this time by carrying only 4,000 pilgrims as price of jet fuel has risen sharply in recent months.
Although the price of jet fuel had shot up by 30 cent a litre over the last one year, the cabinet in its August 15, 2005 decision on Hajj fare did not take into account the price factor and fixed the fare at $950, the same rate that the pilgrims paid last year.
Biman had originally asked the civil aviation ministry to fix the fare at $1350 per passenger. The ministry brought it down to $1250 before placing the proposal at the cabinet. But the cabinet meeting did not pay any heed.
Meanwhile, various platforms of prospective Hajj pilgrims have urged the government not to raise the airfare for non-ballotee pilgrims.
Some of them alleged that although the government has set the fare for all pilgrims at $950, a vested quarter in the national flag carrier is out to increase it by $410 on the pretext of having aircraft shortage and effects of the latest hike in jet fuel price.