Good job done, bad job too

It was indeed a job well done by Biman Bangladesh Airlines -- sending all would-be hajis to Saudi Arabia by the deadline.

But the success story was marred by sufferings of around 300 other passengers, specially women and children.

Biman cancelled flights to Kathmandu, Kuala Lumpur and Muscat to ensure the journey of the pilgrims to Jeddah on the last day of its hajj flights, said sources in the national flag carrier. 

Talking to The Daily Star, several passengers said Biman didn't inform them in advance about the flight cancellations.

Passengers reaching the airport burst with anger. Initially, no Biman official was available to inform them about the flight cancellation, many of them alleged. 

According to the standard practice in civil aviation, the airline concerned, except for in emergency cases, has to inform its passengers if it plans to cancel any flight.

The airline will also arrange accommodation and food for passengers who can't go back home, according to an aviation expert.

“We will not deny that we couldn't inform our honourable Biman passengers well ahead of the flight cancellations. We should have definitely done that. But we were very worried and busy sending all the hajj passengers to Saudi Arabia by the deadline that ended tonight [yesterday],” Biman Managing Director and CEO AM Mosaddique Ahmed told this correspondent.

Yesterday, Biman sent around 2,900 pilgrims to Jeddah by nine flights. Of the nine, six were dedicated hajj flights and the rest were managed by cancelling the three international flights, sources said.

The Biman boss said they have ensured accommodation and food for all the passengers who opted to wait for the rescheduled flights.

The Kathmandu-bound plane was scheduled to fly at 11:35am and the two others around 8:00pm. As per the changed schedule, the three flights will take off 24 hours after the scheduled time, sources said.

There were 46 passengers for the Kathmandu flight while around 120 passengers each for the fights to Kuala Lumpur and Muscat, Biman sources said.

Biman officials said they wouldn't have cancelled the three regular flights yesterday if they didn't have to cancel at least 15 hajj flights due to shortage of passengers. The flights could carry over 6,000 people.

Besides, over 2,000 seats remained unoccupied since the hajj flights started on August 4.

A total of 1.1 lakh pilgrims from Bangladesh are scheduled to perform hajj this year. Of them, Biman carried 49,595 to Jeddah and Saudia Airlines the rest.

“I had to wait 24 hours to start a one-hour journey,” said Mukul Anwar, a passenger of the Nepal-bound flight. 

Another passenger, Shahidul Alam, told this correspondent that he reached Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport around 9:00am.

“After reaching there, I heard no announcement on the cancellation of the flight. Even there was no mention of it on the electronic board,” Shahidul, who was due to attend a programme in Kathmandu.

“No official was available till 10:00am. Then we went to the Biman sales counter. A Biman employee there said he knew nothing about the cancellation of the flight.”

He added, “The Biman employee told us to talk to the station manager. 

“After we waited long, the station manager informed us about the flight cancellation and in the process several hours went by.”

Finally, Sahidul and another passenger, who too had an emergency to get to Kathmandu, managed tickets of Air India flight that will make an overnight stopover in Kolkata en route to Kathmandu.

Shukur Ahmed, a migrant worker, said he will have to reach Muscat by yesterday. Otherwise, he might lose his job.