Biman Bangladesh airlines is ranked in the second lowest of five tiers for airline quality and customer service, in a new global survey of international airlines. Only one airline, Air Koryo of North Korea, was ranked at a lower level.
The report’s findings bode ill for any hopes that the state-owned carrier is likely to become an airline of which we can all be proud. More importantly, there is no end in sight to the saga of chronic mismanagement and over-staffing, which has, and is still, threatening to inflict massive burdens on the tax-payer.
An airline can be small, but if it has a poor reputation and cannot professionalise customer service, it needs wholesale reform, not indulgence by the government as a vested interest.
It is long overdue to act on the logic of turning Biman into a public limited company and move to full privatisation, rather than see it being continued to be propped up by government subsidies.
A few new routes or aircrafts here and there, funded by new loans and tax-payer guarantees, will not be sufficient to reform its deep-rooted problems or make its performance more competitive.
Putting Biman in the private sector is the only practical way to give the airline’s management a chance to reform and rein in its heavy losses.
Tax-payer money can be better spent on improving infrastructure. Passengers are well-served by better managed airlines providing services both internally and internationally. With airline demand rising at 8% a year, passengers will continue to benefit from increasing competition and investment by other carriers.
No added benefit is provided to passengers or the country by wasting tax-payer funds on propping up Biman.
Government funds should focus on training more flight engineers and pilots within the country and improving safety and infrastructure.
Focusing on improvements to civil aviation and building first-rate airport hubs to attract more competitive and better quality airlines, will be a better way to use government funds, rather than supporting Biman with endless subsidies.
