Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh is yet to introduce its own organogram which is the main condition set by US Federal Aviation Administration for the CAAB to be upgraded to category-1.
As the CAAB has been certified as category-2 by the FAA for the last four years, airlines registered with the civil aviation authority can not get access to the United States.
CAAB officials, however, said that the body had already taken necessary steps to meet all conditions set by the FAA, but it was yet to achieve the standard required by the FAA due to negligence of the civil aviation and tourism ministry.
So, the Biman Bangladesh Airlines’ Dhaka-New York route still remain closed, they said.
If the CAAB will not meet the requirements of the FAA, the Dhaka-New York route will not be opened despite the Open Skies Air Transport Agreement signed between Bangladesh and United States, officials said.
On August 17, Bangladesh and the United States initialled the Open Skies Air Transport Agreement and signed a memorandum of understanding in this regard.
Officials said that the FAA set condition that the CAAB should be an autonomous body completely with its own organogram.
The CAAB sent a proposal on its own organogram to the ministry concerned in 2012. But the ministry is yet to take any step in this regard, they said.
Civil aviation and tourism deputy secretary Manjur Kader told New Age that the CAAB’s own organogram was in process under the public administration ministry.
He said that the public administration ministry needed the permission of home and defence ministries in this regard. The home and defence ministries have recently given permission of forming own organogram of the CAAB, he said.
The civil aviation and tourism ministry will request the finance and public administration ministries soon to give CAAB consent for forming its own organogram, he added.
CAAB officials said that the FAA certified the civil aviation authority of Bangladesh as category-2 due to lack of flight security in 2009. The FAA also considered a number of other conditions in the process.
CAAB director of safety and regulation division SM Nazmul Anam told New Age that FAA audit delegation was to come to visit CAAB in June this year but they did not turn up as the conditions set by the FAA were not fulfilled till then.
He expected that the process of forming CAAB’s own organogram would be completed by next April or May and the CAAB will invite the audit team at that time.
Nazmul said, ‘The FAA earlier said that they would come to visit only when all conditions are fulfilled.’
The delegation will come to see the status of implementation of their conditions for up gradation of the CAAB to category-1 from category-2, he added.
-With New Age input
