Biman Bangladesh Airlines has suffered a loss of $43,000 within 15 minutes for reportedly ticketing irregularities on the Dhaka-Jeddah route recently.
With the collusion of top marketing officials of the national flag carrier, some travel agencies booked all the tickets for the Dhaka-Jeddah route flight within 15 minutes following the ticket sale announcement.
However, the ferry flight was operated with 43 vacant seats on September 19, though there were 800 bookings against 268 seats.
Later, the same flight, BG1802 of the national carrier, operated from Jeddah to London, and New York to carry the prime minister and other VIP passengers.
Biman incurred the loss as the cost of each ticket on the route was $1000, according to the Biman marketing department.
Asked about the irregularities verbally by the Civil Aviation and Tourism Ministry, Biman General Manager (Marketing) Mohammed Salahuddin tried to cover up by making false explanations.
However, Salahuddin could not give any proper answer for cancellations of more than 800 bookings.
Besides, there was no answer from his side on why any agency did not get any tickets after 15 minutes of opening sales.
Talking to Dhaka Tribune, a former marketing official was surprised as there is no scope to operate flights on the route with empty seats unless the GM marketing of the airline indulged in ticket manipulation.
He pointed out that Jeddah and Medina are always the two most commercially viable and have huge passenger demand.
However, Biman authorized travel agencies, which did not get the tickets, said that a total of eight ticket agencies were able to book all tickets within 15 minutes after forming a nexus with GM marketing and six other officials close to him.
Later, those ticketing agencies continued the fake booking even after the stipulated time frame, they alleged.
However, in the end, 43 seats remained vacant as the booking could not be confirmed.
The eight travel agencies include Khan Travel, Royal Travel, Khaja Air Liner, and Gulf Travel.
Letter to regional office to cover up scam
After the scam came into the limelight, Mohammed Salahuddin hastily wrote a letter to cover up their irregularities and put the blame on the Biman regional officers seeking advance passengers on that route.
In the letter, he wrote: "They were supposed to provide passengers on the Jeddah route."
However, in response to the letter, the regional officials said that no such advance instructions were given to them by Biman's head office or marketing department.
Contacted, GM (Sales) Dilip Kumar Chowdhury said the ticket reservation process was monitored by the Deputy General Manager (Pricing and RMS) Mohammad Ali Osman Noor.
However, Ali Osman declined to comment on the matter.
What is the solution?
Industry insiders said that Biman suffers loss in two ways – revenue and service reputations.
Former Biman board member Kazi Wahidul Alam said unskilled and dishonest Biman marketing officials had been in this nexus for personal gain for a long time.
“On the other hand, the airline is suffering a financial loss on various routes and having a negative impact on other services as well,” he added.
It would be fair play to allow all permitted agencies to sell tickets. “Biman should ensure that general passengers do not face any harassment and are not charged higher,” he pointed out.
Abdus Salam Aref, secretary general of Atab, blamed the officials of the marketing department over the ticket manipulations. “Without their direct cooperation, such a scam is not possible in any manner,” he claimed.
He urged the Civil Aviation Ministry and the Parliamentary Standing Committee to investigate and find out which travel agencies and Biman officials are involved with the scam.
He also demanded punishment for those involved in it.
