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Beginning anew

Going back to where I started, I honestly tilink this government deserves applause for what it has done for Biman so far, but would add that ordering new airplanes is actually the easier of the tasks that must be done to save the airline and make it a commercially sustainable venture. These new planes may pick Biman up from the gutters and help it soar high, but if the organisational reforms are not carried through these very planes will themselves become the final nails in the coffin for Biman.

Imran Asif
IT was on May 2006 that my first article on Biman was published in The Daily Star. By December 2007. I had penned 10 such articles on the airline and. admittedly. 1 lost hope as each one got published. The BNP government was least bothered to pay any heed to anyone wanting any good for Biman. Even the current caretaker government was not showing much interest early on as the airline went up on the gallows, count-ingdown to its final moments.
Although the current government turned Biman into a public limited company around mid-2007, the future of the airline looked bleak as it was still plagued with a predominantly bureaucratic board of directors, which was far from being professional or efficient enough to run a commercial airline. The change for the better came from right there -- as the board of directors was reconstituted to replace the bureaucrats with professionals from various
disciplines. The biggest, and perhaps the most important, change came in the form of Mr. Mahbub Jamil, who, as special assistant to the chief adviser, was given the charge of the Ministry of Civil Aviation & Tourism. Biman, for the first time in its lifetime, found someone with adequate sanity, sense of judgement, and professional outlook to fall backon!
Back in May 2007 1 had suggested through an article here that the government should accomplish eight tasks regarding Biman's salvation. Coincidentally enough, three of those eight tasks have already been taken care of in the last three months: exemption from PPR-2003: reconstitution of the board of dDlrectors; and a move to induct a new fleet for Biman. In my articles in May and December 2007, I had also opined that the ideal fleet composition for Biman should perhaps be comprised of Boeing 777s, 787s, and 737s.
A group of gentlemen, not quite in agreement with my ideas of reforms at Biman, promptly labelled me as a pursuant of
American interests! So, when the current board at Biman decided exactly the same composition through eight meetings in just over two months, 1 felt greatly relieved! At the signing ceremony of the firm contract with Boeing on April 22, among all those people from Biman that I found to congratulate, those few men who were supposedly protecting "Biman's interests" were strangely absent!
There is another person who is certainly even more relieved than me for what has just happened. When he took over the responsibility of Biman two years ago, the airline already had a massive fuel bill backlog of over Tk 1,000 crore payable to Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC). Since he took over, he made every endeavour to make sure that Biman paid its fuel bills to BPC every month. Yet, the press and the media would Invariably haunt him with the question: "When will Biman pay up its overdue fuel bills to BPC, amounting to overTk 1,000 crore?"
It is something he was not responsible for, and yet he had to
find a way to defend himself simply because he was (and is) occupying the position of the managing dircc tor and CEO. I was talking about Dr. MA Momen. He now has a better answer to the question because the government has finally kept its word to Biman to entirely absorb the liability of the overdue backlog of fuel bills, to help it have a new start with better looking financials on its papers.
Now that the new airplanes are on the way and the heavy burden of liabilities are gone, I personally think the government should work to implement five basic tasks, al) pertinent to organisational strength and discipline, in order to ensure that the airline is run efficiently and optimally to make the huge investment on the new planes worthwhile:
Empower executive management: The managing director/CEO should have his appointment for at least three years, or more ideally for five years, subject to renewal upon his attainment of predefined objectives and goals for the airline. Through his term, he would only be answerable to the board of directors (which should be comprised of professionals and not governmentappointee bureaucrats) and not to the ministry/GoB. His services should also be adequately rewarded with a package of remuneration and benefits in line with theglobal industry standard.
The executive departments
under him should also be appointed under predefined terms and they would, in turn, be only answerable to the MD/CEO. Again, these people should be professionals with proven track records and adequate accreditations, who would deserve to be rewarded aptly for their services. The current environment, with little job security and absence of delegation of authority, provides no motivation, and the rewards with "peanuts" does not help either!
Strengthen marketing capabilities: Well, I would not be contradicted by many, if at all, when 1 say that Biman has really never had anything to do with "marketing." Yes, it does have a sales department which takes a thoroughly non-proactive approach to selling tickets. But the global airline business is evolving into a more competitive one literally by the day, and without a solid marketing approach, Biman would soon find no one to sell its tickets to. It is imperative for Biman to develop a strong marketing department, and it should do it fast. The department should just follow the fundamentals: to relate customer needs vs. the product; cost vs. price; convenience vs. place; and communication vs. promotion. It will really need no marketing magic to pull the airline through, but just a focused persistence with the fundamentals.
Plan ahead and plan smart: In
about 37 years, there has been only one instance of Biman doing any kind of serious planning! That was during the late 1990s, when it prepared a 10-year perspective plan for the period 1998-2008. The absence of planning exercises is directly related with the weak control that has plagued the airline since Its inception, simply because planning and control are like two blades of a scissor and the absence of one negates any usefulness of the other.
By keeping the purchase options for additional airplanes in the recent deal with Boeing, Biman has exhibited a degree of planning ahead as far as its fleet is concerned. If it does not plan ahead for the airline as a whole, the fleet of planes will be largely useless and the management will be left with no control over the situation.
Operate safely and efficiently: In the airline business, the most Important aspect of operations is to understand the paramount Importance of passenger safety. Compromising with safety to save a rather meagre amount of money could, in turn, cost a fortune to the airline and might even put its very existence at stake. Biman must realise this, and ensure that safety is given priority over everything else at all times. Operating efficiently while maintaining maximum safety is an art by itself.
Qantas of Australia is one of the best, if not the very best, example of
this. It has an impeccable safety record and is admired by travellers all around the globe, and yet they are an extremely efficient operator. They have embraced all available technological advances to attain optimum efficiency. For example, Qantas' adoption of Required Navigation Performance (RNP) and continuous descent approach methods Is set to save billions for the airline through decades as it expands Its operations. Biman will have to follow and learn from these trend-setters, because in this business only the best learned will live to lead!
March towards privatisation at large: Let us face it, or rather let the government face it -- the private sector of Bangladesh is by and large the most significant contributor to the country's annual growth. The economists can elaborate numerous macro-economic factors behind this truth, but the fact remains that the government will never be nearly as efficient as the private sector in a country like Bangladesh for reasons we have all witnessed since liberation.
Biman, as a commercial venture and as a business, should be under the control of the private sector for all good reasons. The government must face the truth by showing the best intentions to let it go from its hands. It has been reported in the national dailies recently that the government is preparing to sell 49% of the airline's shares to the
private sector, which I do not think is good enough. It should rather sell the majority of its shares (51% or more) to the private sector and retain minority shareholding to reap the benefits that would come from the airline being made profitable by the private sector leadership and management control
Going back to where I started, I honestly think this government deserves applause for what it has done for Biman so far, but would add that ordering new airplanes is actually the easier of the tasks that must be done to save the airline and make it a commercially sustainable venture.
These new planes may pick Biman up from the gutters and help it soar high, but if the organisational reforms are not carried through these very planes will themselves become the final nails in the coffin for Biman. Mr. Mahbub Jamil has a highly commendable career record that people can undoubtedly believe in. Dr. MA Momen is among the very few bureaucrats one would find these days who is open to criticisms. What makes them the men that they are must be put into best use to make Biman's beginning anew truly meaningful.
The author, currently an aviation industry consultant, has previously on projects with
The Boeing Company, Honeywell Aerospace, and FAA's Operational Evoluton Plan (OEP) in 2004-2005.