Airlines under scanner

The government moves to frame a policy soon to set eligibility criteria for local carriers to fly on international routes, officials said.
The policy is also aimed at bringing transparency and discipline to traffic right distribution process.
The policy, after introduction, is expected to bar less than two-fleet carriers’ operations to the global destinations. Aircraft should be procured through outright purchase or on dry lease basis for a period of minimum three years.
It will also enable the government to cancel the traffic rights of local carriers for keeping frequencies on a particular international route unutilised, the officials added.
The draft policy will be submitted to the civil aviation ministry on October 15 and may be finalised within this month, they added.
“We are framing a policy to ensure transparency in selecting airlines for operation on global routes and ensure travellers’ safety,” said Hedayetullah Al Mamoon, secretary to Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism.
The government has taken the initiative to frame the ‘Policy for operation of Bangladeshi carriers on international routes’ considering the rising number of domestic carriers in the recent years.
At present there are five local passengers carriers of which three airlines — United, Best Air and Aviana — began operation in the last two years to fly on global routes.
The rise in the number of local airlines has also increased the demand for flying rights on international routes, the officials said.
“The rise in the number of local carriers has encouraged us to frame a policy for operation on international routes,” Hedayetullah said.
In the last couple of years, permission to local airlines to fly abroad was given based on the discretion of the authorities such as Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB).
The aviation ministry secretary said introduction of the policy will help reduce discretionary power of the government officials responsible for awarding permission to airlines to fly on global routes and allocating frequencies as it will offer a mandatory guideline to all.
According to the draft of the policy, airlines interested to fly on international routes must have adequate arrangement for ground handling, and passenger and cargo handling facilities.
The draft policy also focuses on distribution of frequencies among airlines and it would be done based on availability of frequencies for Bangladesh on that particular route.
It said if the total traffic rights remain below the requirements of eligible carriers, inter-reallocation will be considered on the basis of previous performance of the airlines already using the rights or keeping the allotted frequencies unutilised.
“For this purpose, review of the utilisation of the allotted frequencies in the given sector would be conducted twice a year at the beginning of the first quarter and third quarter each year,” the draft policy said.
“We are framing the policy to ensure maximum utilisation of frequencies that we enjoy based on bilateral air service agreements with different countries,” said CAAB Chairman Sakeb Iqbal Khan Majlis.
He said following the finalisation of the policy within this month, airlines that have kept their flying rights unutilised or underutilised will lose their rights on those respective routes.
“We will take back frequencies from those airlines that remained unutilised. We will later reallocate those to the carriers that have the capacity to utilise,” added Majlis.
The draft policy also said traffic rights allotted to a particular carrier for a specific period such as summer or winter must be used by the carrier within the time.
“Failure to utilise traffic rights once granted would lead to a cancellation at least for two years on that route,” it said.

Courtesy of The Daily Star