Biman to announce flight schedule on Aug 12
Private hajj operators said on Tuesday that could not yet rent houses in Makkah as Biman Bangladesh Airlines Limited and Saudi Arabian Airlines were delaying their announcement of hajj flight schedules.
The two airlines carry a majority of hajj pilgrims from Bangladesh to Saudi Arab.
Following a coordination meeting at the office of the Civil Aviation Authority on Tuesday Biman management said that the national carrier would be able to announce the schedule of hajj flights on August 12.
The civil aviation and tourism minister Muhammad Faruk Khan who chaired the meeting later
said that the hajj flights would begin on September 17 and continue until October 22.
The flight schedule, he said, was subject to approval of Saudi authorities.
Representatives of Hajj Agencies Association
of Bangladesh expressed their concern at the meeting as they could not yet rent the houses in Saudi Arabia for more than one lakh hajj aspirants from Bangladesh.
Faruk Khan assured the private operators that Biman would be able to carry around 50,000 hajjis this year and Saudi Arabian Airlines would carry the rest according an agreement.
In addition to its own hajj flights, Saudi Airlines would engage NAS Air to ferry hajjis from Dhaka as the Government of Bangladesh has decided not to allow third carriers to carry hajjis this year, said officials.
‘We are worried over the delay in announcing the hajj flight schedule. We cannot rent houses in Makkah for the hajjis until we get the flight schedules,’ HAAB president Jamal Uddin Ahmed told New Age on Tuesday.
He said HAAB had protested at the Saudi Arabian Airlines’ decision to engage NAS Air for carrying the pilgrims. ‘
We had bad experience with NAS last year. Hajjis suffered a lot due to long stopovers,’ Jamal Uddin added.
Last year, Bangladesh government allowed 14 airlines as third carriers besides Biman Saudi Arabian Airlines to ferry 1,07,343 hajj pilgrims from Bangladesh to Saudi Arabia at $1465 each.
This year 354 private agencies have signed agreements for sending 1,09,623 hajjis while around 2900 are expected to perform Hajj under the government management. Each hajj pilgrim has to pay $1475 as air fare.
Biman officials said that the national flag carrier already leased one aircraft and another one would be leased by the next week. The return flights would begin on October 30 and continue until December 2, said officials. Hajj officer Bazlul Haque Biswas said that 50 per cent of the hajj agencies had managed houses and they were expected to sign final agreements soon while the rest were looking for excuses to buy time. ‘We are creating pressure on them so that they complete the process soon as a large number of people would perform hajj under private management.’
He said delay in announcement of the hajj flight might be a reason behind the delay in renting the houses, but it could not be the main reason.
The hajj officer said the religious affairs ministry had already rented houses for the hajjis who would perform the pilgrimage under government management, and the private agencies could do the same if they wanted.
-With New Age input
