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The Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism has stepped up its efforts to curb abnormal price hikes in air tickets and prevent fraud.
Sheikh Bashir Uddin, advisor to the ministry, visited Dhaka's Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on Sunday night to assess the effectiveness of the measures.
During the visit, he spoke with passengers and listened to their complaints, reports bdnews24.com citing a statement.
He later held a meeting with senior officials from the relevant agencies, where he issued further guidelines to improve passenger services.
Among the issues discussed were increasing the number of magistrates to strengthen mobile court operations, incorporating mobile courts into the Civil Aviation Rules, expediting services at the Expatriate Welfare Desk, and addressing manpower shortages in the Armed Police Battalion (APBn).
On Thursday, the ministry had issued a notification outlining four directives for passengers and travel agencies.
The statement said the directives to control ticket prices were not being properly followed, noting in particular that the requirement to mention the selling price on tickets was being ignored.
The instructions emphasised that tickets must clearly display the selling price, along with the name and licence number of the issuing travel agency.
Passengers were advised to check both the price and the agency’s name before purchase, and warned not to buy tickets from unregistered agencies.
The ministry also said that if any travel agency was found to be involved in price manipulation or syndicate activities, strict measures would follow, including cancellation of its registration.
Earlier, on Wednesday, Bashir held a meeting with local representatives of foreign airlines at the ministry.
Complaints from expatriates over soaring fares on routes to the Middle East and beyond have long persisted, with allegations of manipulation by some of the airlines’ general sales agents in Bangladesh.
The demand to revoke certain GSA licences has grown in recent months.
A separate meeting on the issue is scheduled for Monday at the Ministry of Commerce in the Secretariat.
Tariqul Islam, the ministry’s spokesman, said that the afternoon session would review steps taken to prevent abnormal increases in ticket prices and ensure safe maritime tourism.