Biman takes on ‘ground handling’ at Dhaka airport’s third terminal

National carrier Biman Bangladesh Airlines will take on ground handling duties at the newly built third terminal at Dhaka’s Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport for two years.

Boshra Islam, managing director of Biman’s Public Relations Wing, said: “We have received a letter containing these instructions, but an agreement has yet to be signed in this regard. The matter will be finalised at that point.”

In July last year, Air Vice Marshal Md Mofidur Rahman, then chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh, said that a Japanese company was interested in taking over the ground handling for the third terminal and the government had decided to give them the job, reports bdnews24.com.

Ground handling usually involves issuing boarding passes to passengers, baggage handling, loading and unloading of cargo, and all types of aircraft services.

Biman had been angling to get the ground handling duties for the third terminal from the beginning. Now, the state-run company will get the responsibility of handling both passengers and cargo.

Since 1972, Biman has taken on ground handling at all airports in the country. Apart from its own flights, Biman also provides ground handling services for 30-42 domestic and foreign airlines. A major part of the company’s revenue comes from this service.

However, at various times, there have been complaints against the airline, including theft from airport luggage, mishandle of luggage, and luggage delays.

On Sept 2 this year, there was a complaint that 6,800 Euros—about Tk 910,000 -- was stolen from the bag of a passenger on a Chennai-bound flight. Five people were arrested and handed over to the police in connection with the incident.

Amid all this, there was consideration of ground handling responsibilities for the third terminal being given to a Japanese company. But after a long discussion, the decision was made in favour of Biman.

Biman spokeswoman Boshra blamed the airport’s infrastructural limitations for the complaints raised against Biman’s ground handling.

“The complaints that are being raised against Biman are not all the responsibility of Biman,” she said. “There are also infrastructure constraints. They will be looked at by the regulatory body. However, Biman will try its best to eliminate the problems that were or are there after receiving the responsibility of the third terminal. We are increasing our capacity further.”

Meanwhile, while the interim government has given instructions to give responsibility to Biman, alongside specific deadlines and performance conditions.

On Oct 24, the director of the public private partnership (PPP) authority (Investment Promotion) of the Chief Advisor’s Office issued a letter informing Biman about the decision.

Ali Azam Al Azad said: “Under the Concession Agreement for Terminal 3, Biman Bangladesh Airlines Limited will basically provide ground handling services for both passengers and cargo of the third terminal.

“For this, a Service Level Agreement (SLA) will be executed between Biman Bangladesh Airlines Limited and the Private Sector Partner (PSP).”

The letter said that the chief advisor of the interim government approved the decision.

In a press release on Oct 9, Biman announced various initiatives to enhance the ground handling capacity of the third terminal.

As part of the move to enrich the fleet and increase capacity, state-of-the-art equipment is being purchased. To improve the ground handling capacity, the purchase of machinery worth around Tk 10 billion has been undertaken in various phases, several of which have been added to the fleet.

State-owned Biman Bangladesh currently has about 2,000 motorised and manual machinery in its ground support equipment (GSE) fleet. There are 26 belt loaders.

The airline says it is also in the process of buying high loaders, container pallet transporters, air conditioned vans, passenger stairwells, water carts, flush carts, aircraft medical lifts and other equipment.

The capacity of the GSE department has been enhanced through recruitment and training of GSE operators and mechanics along with procurement of new equipment centred on the third terminal, it said.

Biman claims it has reduced the time taken for passengers to receive their baggage. In a circular it said that 86 percent of delivery times were now between 18 to 51 minutes and that efforts are underway to turn this into 100 percent soon.

In addition, 100 employees have been appointed to increase the manpower for airport services and the process of recruiting more manpower is ongoing, Biman said.