Pilot strike continues, old fliers called for emergency duty, hundreds of passengers stranded at airports
Hundreds of passengers of international and domestic routes have been stranded at the Shahjalal International Airport for the last couple of days as the authorities were forced to cancel or reschedule flights of the national flag carrier Biman following strike enforced by Bangladesh Airlines Pilots’ Association (BAPA).
The outbound passengers scheduled to fly by Biman sufferred manifold dislocations in their travel plans as most of the pilots refrained from flying aircrafts by submitting ‘sick report’ on Wednesday.
The situation got a new dimenstion as the authorities in their desperate move called the officials having flying experience on emergency duty. About ten Biman officials have been assigned with the task of emergency flying, official sources confirmed .
Jamaluddin Ahmed, chairman of Bangladesh Biman told the reporters on Wednesday that the officials who had flown planes in situation have been calld for duty like this.
Admitting the situation, managing director of the Biman Zakiul Islam said the pilots have reported sick which can cause major shifts in the flight schedule.
The crisis developed when the BAPA went on a wildcat strike on Tuesday evening following suspension of four pilots including acting president and general secretary of their association.
Earlier, BAPA gave a 24-hour ultimatum on Oct 20 to meet their 5-point demand. On the other hand, the authorities termed the pilots’ statements ‘contrary to national interest’.
To meet their 5-point demand, the Biman has been given the ultimatum by the BAPA. The time period will end at 5pm on Thursday. If their demands are not met by the meantime, BAPA has decided not to carry out any duty.
Of the 116 pilots, 102 decided not to operate any flights from 9:00pm yesterday. Only seven pilots working on a contractual basis now flying the planes, it is learnt.
The board members of the Biman sat on a long-standing meeting yesterday night to find out a solution. “We are trying to resolve the problem by holding discussions with the pilots,” said Jamaluddin Ahmed, chairman of Bangladesh Biman.
In this regard, the pilots were given 48 hours time to join back in their work, meeting sources said.
Meanwhile, the pilots’ strike disrupted about 15 international flights including Dhaka-Jeddah, Dhaka-Riyadh, Dhaka-Dubai-London, Sylhet-Kathmandu-Bahrain, Dhaka-Kuwait, Chittagong-Musket and Dhaka-Singapore flights.
Moreover, several domestic flights might be affected such as: Dhaka-Sylhet and Dhaka-Kolkata-Kathmandu, etc, Biman sources said.
An international flight Dhaka-London was delayed about 7 hours due to pilot’s strike yesterday. The flight was scheduled to take off at 6am but it initially shifted to 12.45pm, said an official of the Shahjalal International Airport control room.
The scheduled flight bound for Dubai was cancelled. Some more flights scheduled for the night were also cancelled for the strike, sources added.
A Malaysia-bound Biman flight had been stuck in Dhaka since Friday with about 60 passengers and another 65, scheduled to fly in on the same flight, are stuck in Kuala Lumpur.
The flight was rescheduled to Saturday and subsequently cancelled. The passengers had all been put up in hotels and they will be flown to Malaysia on next Sunday’s flight.
Leaders of the BAPA at a press briefing Wednesday said they will not join in work if the authorities withdraw punishment measures taken against the pilots. We called the indefinite strike protesting the punishment of four members by the authorities. However, the hajj flights would remain free from the strike, they added.
It is learnt that 57 pilots had not joined work submitting ‘sick’ report since the pilots association called the work abstention programme. outside their contract with Biman.
The association will declare their next programme under the existing labour law on November 8, BAPA leaders said. But, Hajj and VIP flights, however, will remain outside their programme.
BAPA acting president Zakir Hussain confirmed that saying that Hajj and VIP flights have not been included in their work-halt programme.
The strike was called on Tuesday night after Biman authorities served notice temporarily suspending four of its pilots and asking another to justify his actions
In this regard BAPA president Zakir Hussain, general secretary MA Basit Mahtab and AM Maqsud were suspended.
Earlier, show-cause notices were issued On Sunday against them for holding a press conference on October 20. BAPA gave a 24-hour ultimatum to the authorities asking to meet their five-point demands and declared not to carry out any duty beyond their contract.
The pilot association demands include withdrawal of a Biman order illegally increasing maximum age limits of five pilots from 57 years to 62 years.
The charter of demand also include cancellation of wet lease (leasing an aircraft with complete crew, maintenance, and insurance) and launching of dry lease (leasing only aircraft), preventing a management blue-print for increments of Biman officials in the name of combining personal dues, reappointment of two Biman officials who have been removed recently, and buying necessary equipment and increasing manpower for standard ground handling.
According to the sources, Dhaka-Kuala Lumpur flight scheduled to fly at 8pm on Wednesday will take to its wings at 10pm on Thursday. The 9pm Dhaka-Muscat flight will take off at 1pm while the 4pm Dhaka-Kolkata flight will run at 7:30pm on Thursday.
Whereas, the delayed Dhaka-Sylhet-London and Dhaka-Sylhet flights will fly respectively at 5pm and 4pm on Thursday.
