Private airlines demand Tk1,000cr interest-free loans, other packages

Local private airlines have urged the government for sanctioning Tk 1,000 crore interest- free loans and waiver of tax, landing and navigation charges to survive the global recession storm.
“We are already in deep in debt while traffic flow has gone down. If we want to sustain the recession storm we need this amount this year,” M Haider Uzzaman, convener of a body of four private carriers, Airlines Association of Bangladesh, told The Daily Star over phone.
The association constitutesGMG Airlines, United Airways, Best Air and Aviana Airways Ltd.
Haider said he, on behalf of the association, placed a written appeal to the finance ministry yesterday, seeking support from the government, already burdened with bailout demands from different business sectors.
On March 15, the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI), the apex lobby group, sought Tk 6000 crore in bailout package to cushion businesses from the global crisis fallout.
Haider claimed that private airlines incurred a loss of Tk 300 crore last year because of the surge in fuel prices.
As the recession deepens, oil price slumped. But Haider, also chairman of Best Air, argued that passengers, including leisure travellers, have gone down.
Flights of Best Air, entered in January last with a maiden Boeing 737-200 aircraft, are now suspended on technical grounds, said Haider, expressing his desire to resume flights by the end of March.
The airline operates on four international destinations including Kuala Lumpur, one of major markets for local airlines, thanks to migrant workers.
Local airlines usually rely on migrant workers to the Middle East and Southeast Asian economies like Singapore and Malaysia that employ majority of Bangladesh's five million plus migrant workers.
But as the recession deepens and oil prices slide, the outflow of migrant workers records a gradual decline, while many are on the return.
The situation worsened further after the government of Malaysia, one of the major employers of Bangladesh migrant workers, cancelled visa of 55,000 workers.
“Traffic situation has deteriorated sharply after cancellation of visa by Malaysia,” said Haider.
“Environment is changing rapidly and all are against us,” he said.
“We want the government to clear us from paying charges for landing and parking charges so that we can carry out expansion moves,” said Captain Tasbirul Ahmed Choudhury, chairman and managing director of United Airways (BD) Ltd, which started operation in July 2007.
The chief of United Airways, which has recently procured a Md-83 and plans global expansion by mid-2009, believed that domestic airlines might face the blow of recession in case garments exports slips.
“Global recession will have affect directly or indirectly. It would be helpful for us if we get some relief from paying these charges,” said Choudhury. His airline wants to secure about Tk 140 crore in turnover.