Direct flights between Bangladesh and the United States, currently barred by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) because Bangladesh’s civil aviation authority does not meet US flight security requirements, may commence by next year.
The FAA awarded the Civil Aviation Administration, Bangladesh (CAAB) category two status, but the Bangladeshi agency has been in the process of obtaining category one status for the last two and a half years.
CAAB needs to be in category one in order send an aircraft directly to the US. The process had stalled due to bureaucratic delays on the Bangladeshi side.
The FAA needs a copy of CAAB’s manpower structure to get the permission process going, but bureaucratic complexities had held back CAAB from submitting it. FAA delegates are expected to be invited once the organogram is submitted.
Wing Commander S M Nazmul Anam, CAAB director of flight safety and regulations, said they were in the final stages of preparing the organogram and would complete it by the end of the year.
“Since more than 10,000 staff members and many ministries were involved in the process, CAAB took a long time to prepare the organogram,” he told the Dhaka Tribune.
Since the FAA normally takes six months to schedule an inspection visit, officials are hopeful that by next June they will be able to visit Bangladesh and confer category one status on CAAB.
Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister Rashed Khan Menon told the Dhaka Tribune that in December, his ministry would send the organogram to the Public Administration Ministry for approval. FAA inspectors would then be invited to Bangladesh.
He said he hopes the Public Administration Ministry will swiftly approve the organogram as his ministry is eager to complete the category upgrade.
In 2009, the FAA marked CAAB as a second category regulatory agency because of weak flight security. At that time, the FAA gave two main conditions to CAAB to achieve the desired status upgrade: Establishing full autonomy and ensuring recruitment according to its own organogram.
In 2012, CAAB sent a draft copy of its organogram to the Civil Aviation and Tourism Ministry for approval. In the draft, manpower mapping for the next 20 years resulted in 13,776 posts. But the ministry revised the amount, fixed it at 10,698 posts and sent it to the Public Administration Ministry. The organogram CAAB maintains was formed in 1984 with 3,716 posts including the chairman.
The CAAB flight safety director said there was a shortage of manpower and the organagram ought to be upgraded.
On December 10, 2011 Bangladesh signed a draft air service agreement with US aviation authorities at the Air Service Navigation Conference of the International Civil Aviation Organisation in Jeddah, Saudia Arabia. According to that contract, Bangladesh can take the initiative to start a Dhaka – New York flight.
An “Open Skies” Memorandum of Understanding between the two countries was signed on August 17, 2013.
The civil aviation and tourism minister said CAAB would likely achieve FAA category one status by next year.
