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Biman Bangladesh Airlines, the lone national flag carrier of the country, is strengthening its capacity for ground handling at the third terminal of the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport.
Dr Md Shafiqur Rahman, managing director and CEO of Biman, said Biman was buying new equipment, and hiring and training fresh manpower to this end.
In the meantime, some equipment have already been added to the Ground Support Equipment (GSE) fleet of the aviation company, he told the FE.
Some 70 pieces, including pushback tow tractors, air start units, container pallet units, ambulifts, passenger steps, belt loaders, container pallet transporters, container pallet loaders, water carts and flush carts, will be added to the fleet within months.
"We need huge equipment for ground handling of the third terminal. We have already procured some equipment and more will add to our GSE fleet in phases," said the Biman CEO.
Biman Bangladesh Airlines has been chosen to handle ground services at the newly built terminal for two years.
Now, it needs a licence from the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) to do the job. The CAAB will issue the licence after carrying out an audit.
The Biman CEO said they might get the licence next September.
Meanwhile, CAAB chairman Air Vice-Marshal Monjur Kabir Bhuiyan recently reaffirmed his commitment to making the much-anticipated third terminal operational by the end of 2025.
Before that, the state-owned airliner has to take full-fledged preparations for the ground-handling job.
The Biman authorities are also in the process of recruiting efficient manpower for airport service, GSE and other sections of the facility.
The ground-handling job involves passenger boarding, baggage handling, cargo handling and all types of aircraft services.
Apart from its own flight operations, Biman has taken on ground handling at all airports, international ones, in the country since 1972.
However, passengers and stakeholders often question their services such as luggage handling, delays and inefficiencies. However, according to the airport authorities, the delay in receiving luggage has improved significantly.
In 2023, Biman provided ground-handling services to 9.2-million passengers on 57,350 flights with 35 foreign airlines and 12 non-scheduled foreign airlines operating scheduled flights in Bangladesh.
It handled baggage to the volume of 23.0 million that year.
The ground-handler is trying to hand over the first luggage within about 18th minute and the last one within about 48th minute.
To increase transparency and accountability in the baggage handling service, cameras have been installed on the bodies of the flight attendants concerned.
The third terminal project, costing Tk 213.0 billion, was initiated on 28 December 2019. Of the amount, the government financed Tk 50.0 billion and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) the remainder.
Spanning over 230,000 square metres, the terminal will include 115 check-in counters, 66 departure immigration desks, 59 arrival immigration desks and three VIP immigration desks.
The airport's annual passenger- and cargo-handling capacity is expected to double when the terminal becomes fully operational.
The annual passenger-handling capacity will be 24 million (including the old terminals). At present, the airport can handle 8.0-million passengers and 500,000 tonnes of cargo each year.