To say that Biman, Bangladesh's national carrier, has not lived up to its name would be an understatement.
From a pure resource and inventory perspective, the carrier indeed has the capability to be one of the most profitable and efficient ventures in Bangladesh to date. Sadly, this has not come to fruition with Biman not only losing money year on year -- in spite of making cuts to operations across the board -- but also being rife with corruption and incompetence, the latest instance seeing a pilot with forged paperwork being admitted into the company.
Despite Biman's promising start right after our liberation, sadly, everything went downhill. Rather than expanding the number of international destinations, for example, the number has come down to 18 in the last 16 years.
Services such as the hajj flight fare have spiraled out of the reach of all but the wealthiest citizens, while recent filings by the Anti-Corruption Commission allege that irregularities have cost the national carrier a loss to the tune of over Tk1,100 crore. Even for a state enterprise, such irregularities are unprecedented.
All of the problems mentioned above have come to characterize the bureaucratic inefficiencies that plague our state bodies. As such, the prudent step to take would be the wholesale privatization of the company -- tax-payer funds would surely be better spent on improving airport infrastructure and flight engineering and training facilities to make Bangladesh an attractive hub for air travel.
Biman does indeed hold the potential of being a profitable and efficient company, but it needs to be privatized for the company to manifest it. But before that pans out, the government needs to stop its unjustifiable propping up of the company and let it prosper on its own merits.
