Foreign airlines decline to carry pilgrims at $1,050
Reaz Ahmad
The aircraft crisis continued to haunt thousands of intending Hajj pilgrims as six foreign airliners yesterday declined to fly Bangladeshi pilgrims to Saudi Arabia at Biman's revised fare of $1,050.The officials of Qatar Airways, Saudi Arabian Airlines, Kuwait Airways, Emirates, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) and Gulf Air held a joint meeting at the Emirates' Gulshan office yesterday, all disapproving of the new fare. With its dwindling fleet-size, the national flag carrier, Biman Bangladesh Airlines, has already expressed its inability to fly more than 18,000 of the 60,000 intending Hajj pilgrims to Saudi Arabia. Now, the foreign airlines' "no" to the decreased fare, fixed two days ago by the Biman to the satisfaction of the agitating Hajj Agencies Association of Bangladesh (HAAB), came as another blow to the agencies. HAAB President Abdus Shakur and General Secretary Jinnur Ahmed Chowdhury Dipu told The Daily Star yesterday that their representatives will discuss the matter with all concerned at the inter-ministerial meeting on Hajj to be held at the religious affairs ministry today. Qatar Airways Area Manager in Bangladesh Shamshad Ahsan told The Daily Star yesterday evening, "Our head offices fixed the Hajj flight fare at $1,300. But upon the request of the host country's government, all of us--except the Saudi Arabian Airlines--agreed to slash the fare down to $1,150. The Saudi airlines kept its fare static at $1,300." The foreign airliners will not be able to lower the fare any further, Ahsan added. The foreign airliners' meeting also firmly refuted the allegation of any shady deal with the former civil aviation state minister regarding the inflated Hajj flight fare, saying the airline offices in Bangladesh do not have any authority to increase or decrease the fares without the approval of the head offices. Irfanul Huq, manager (sales and marketing) of Saudi Arabian Airlines, Hanif Zakaria, sales manager of Emirates, Qais Al Shatti, senior manager of Kuwait Airways, Merwyn Fernandes, general manager of Gulf Air and Hidayatullah Baloch, country manager of PIA, attended the meeting. Meanwhile, the religious affairs ministry yesterday extended the deadline for depositing "Muallim" fees until November 24 as pilgrims had earlier missed two deadlines--November 15 and 20--due to HAAB's suspension of booking tickets and depositing fees in protest at the government's indifference to the Hajj flight crises.
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