Passengers shun Biman after debacle

A Saidpur-bound plane of Biman Bangladesh Airlines yesterday flew with only seven passengers after Tuesday's technical glitch in a Biman flight on the same domestic route and a subsequent seven-hour delay and then cancellation.     

The return flight-BG 493 of Bombardier Dash-8, a 74-seater aircraft, however flew 27 passengers back to Dhaka, Abu Ahmed, district manager of Biman Bangladesh Airlines, told The Daily Star.

On Tuesday, a Biman flight to Saidpur had to return to Dhaka within fifteen minutes of take-off from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport following a technical issue. The plane, a Bombardier Dash-8, took off with 67 passengers at 12:28pm but returned at 12:50pm, an air-traffic controller said.

Biman authorities finally cancelled the flight after around seven hours. This left 74 Dhaka-bound passengers stranded in Saidpur.  

Biman officials blame airport authorities of Saidpur not keeping open the airport for an additional 30 to 50 minutes after its scheduled closing time of 8:00pm for this. There were children, elderly and sick passengers who had been at the airport for more than nine hours. The flight itself is of around 50 minutes duration.

The Saidpur-bound Biman flight yesterday reached around 9:30am and the return flight reached HSIA around 10:45am.  

Although the national airliner's yesterday's Dhaka-Saidpur-Dhaka flight seems to have got very poor response from passengers, the three private airliners operating on the route -- Novo Air, Regent and US-Bangla Airlines -- flew in mostly full-capacity, sources said.

A total of nine flights are operated on the Dhaka-Saidpur route each day.