Biman's commercialisation long overdue
We fully endorse the finance minister's statement regarding transforming Biman into a commercial undertaking. For Biman to become a truly commercial airline, the board should have professionals from the airline industry. For many years, Biman has been running at a loss and this has everything to do with a lack of planning, professionalism, and autonomy. Merely adding aircrafts to the fleet would not help its image or earnings unless the ground and on-board services are improved.
We have seen Biman steadily squeezed out of the market as it lost a lot of business to other airlines, primarily because of the quality of service others have been offering. The national carrier's terrible track record of missing flights and failure to meet even the most basic consumer satisfaction levels have relegated Biman to the status of an airline most people would prefer to avoid. Systemic graft and bad management calls have become synonymous with Biman and nothing short of a major overhaul in management can rectify the problem.
For Biman two things must predominate over every other consideration—passenger satisfaction and profit. And to do that, it should not only be commercialised, it should be run by professional people and freed of complete bureaucratic control. We hope that the airline under the stewardship of professionals will be given considerable autonomy to choose airline routes, revamp in-flight services and offer the quality that today's jet passengers have to come to expect from internationally reputed airliners. It is high time Biman got the management it deserves so that it may reclaim its lost glory.
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