Biman pilots on Friday night called off their indefinite strike on the prime minister’s assurance of meeting their demands.
The Bangladesh Airlines Pilots Association general secretary, Basit Mahtab, told New Age a two-member delegation which went to the Prime Minister’s Office on Friday was assured of a meeting with the prime minister today.
The prime minister’s assistant private secretary Saifuzzaman told the pilots that the prime minister would sit with them and look into their demands but they would need to call off their strike first without any condition, Mahtab said.
‘We will start operating flights from tomorrow,’ the association leader said on Friday, referring to the assurance.
The meeting will be held any time on Saturday to the prime minister’s convenience, sources said.
The association went on strike for an indefinite period on Thursday morning after the authorities had suspended five of its pilots on Wednesday for rallying against a decision of the authorities on increasing the retirement age of pilots from 57 years to 62 years, leaving them conditionally out of insurance and rehabilitation benefits during the period.
The association’s acting president Zakir Hossain, general secretary Basit Mahtab, SM Helal, Farazi and Maksud were grounded for allegedly leading the protest.
The pilots since October 22 had stopped flying additional hours that are beyond the contract between the association and Biman Bangladesh Airlines Ltd but the ongoing Hajj flights were kept outside the purview of the strike.
Biman passengers headed for international destinations continued to suffer for the second day on Friday as pilots of the national flag carrier had been on strike flouting the 48-hour ultimatum, beginning 11:00am on Thursday, for them to join work.
Biman on Thursday cancelled all its international and domestic but the flights to ferry Hajj passengers scheduled for Friday and Saturday because of the strike, officials said.
A Biman flight for Singapore with 260 passengers on board, however, took off the airport under special arrangements on Friday morning, flight operation officials said.
The Biman management in a move to cope with the situation have drafted administrative officials with flying experience to handle the emergency, officials said.
Ziaul Hasan, scheduled to fly to Dubai on Friday to join work there on Sunday, told New Age he was to fly at 8:30am but the flight had been cancelled. He said he did not know when he could fly to Dubai.
‘On my arrival at the airport this morning, I have come to know that my flight was cancelled as the pilots are on strike. I often go to Dubai by Emirates Airline flights but this time I chose to fly with Biman as it costs less,’ he said on Friday.
Badsha Mian, a security personal of the airport, told New Age passengers had tried to vandalise the waiting room at the Dhaka airport soon after they had heard of flight cancellation.
Biman officials earlier said they would operate a flight to London with more than 300 passengers on board on Saturday morning under special arrangements as they have been kept in a hotel by the authorities.
