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Biman's Flight Debacle

Strike adds to passengers' sufferings

Md Fazlur Rahman
Biman Bangladesh Airlines has already rescheduled the flight of Ismail Hossain, a migrant worker, due to the ongoing flight disorder. Yesterday's hartal just aggravated his sufferings.
The 45-year-old from Tangail had to hire a microbus at Tk 3,000 to come to the airport at 2:00am yesterday, fearing that the daylong hartal might be extended, although he was told that he would fly on 4:00pm today.
" I am still not sure whether I will be able to fly on time. But I have to reach Saudi Arabia by Tuesday as my visa and my leave will expire that day," Ismail told The Daily Star, as he sat eating puffed rice for breakfast outside an entry gate at Shahjalal International Airport.
His comments came as Biman passengers, mostly bound for Middle-Eastern and East-Asian destinations, continued to face flight delays. The national carrier has been struggling to carry passengers to their destinations amid a shortage of adequate aircraft.
Golam Mostafa, 52, said he was supposed to leave the country for Saudi Arabia early on September 16, but his
SEE PAGE 5 COL 1 FROM PAGE 20 flight was rescheduled for 12:00pmtoday.
A bakery worker by profession, Mostafa said he had stayed at a city hotel for the first two days, but had later gone home town in Narail as no fresh date was given by the Biman authorities.
He said he had already informed his fellow Bangladeshi at the bakery firm about his plight. "I hope my employer will understand the situation," he said while sitting on his luggage at the airport.
Badsha Mondol, 44, who works at a powder manufacturing workshop in Malaysia, said he was supposed to fly on Saturday. But he could not fly until 8:00pm yesterday.
Badsha, hailing from Kushtia, said he had talked to his employer and informed him about the flight disorder of the national carrier. The employer told him to come as early as possible.
The daylong countrywide hartal enforced by a group of 12 Islamist parties to protest an anti-Islamic film in the USA prolonged the sufferings of many migrant workers as they had to arrive at the airport much earlier than their already uncertain flights. Moreover, because of less availability, costs of public transport services shot up too.
Mostafa said: "I came early because of the hartal as I was anxious that I might fail to turn up in time," he toldThe Daily Star.
Abu Sayed, who came to see off his uncle Mohammad Khokon, a worker at a garden in Malaysia, said they had come to the airport at 8:00am although their plane was due at 7:30pm to avoid hassle.
He said his uncle was supposed to leave the
country on Saturday evening by a Biman flight.
Minhaj Uddin and Mohammad Liton both work in the plantation sector in the Cameron Highlands in Malaysia. They said Biman should improve its services and passengers should not be left to suffer because of its failure.
"What will happen to those passengers whose tenure of visas may expire before they can fly?Who will
take the responsibility? On many occasions, the employers do not want to employ them if they are late at their workplaces," said Minhaj.
Liton said he would have faced trouble because of the delay had Minhaj not had a relative in Dhaka, with whom he had been staying for the last couple of days.
Mohammad Bahar, 35, said he must reach Oman by this morning to save his job.
The serious schedule chaos that hit Biman in the second week of September has already hampered the travel plans of several thousand passengers.
The disorder, which has forced Biman to shut its domestic operations and deploy two small aircraft to ferry the stranded passengers, will persist until tomorrow, an official admitted.
M Shahnewaj, Biman's director of marketing and sales, earlier told The Daily Star that the situation would improve from September 25 when two aircraft would join the Biman fleet.
Sources said the flight disorder, now in its second week, has affected more than 2,000 passengers, as Biman has concentrated all its efforts for ferrying hajj pilgrimages smoothly.