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Bangladesh's air cargo sector has witnessed a phenomenal growth in international and domestic freight movement over the past 10 years through 2018.
It has showed 154 per cent and 479 per cent growth in international and domestic freight movement respectively during the period.
The volume of international cargo carried through the airports of Bangladesh increased to 0.37 million tonnes in 2018 from 0.14 million tonnes in 2009.
The volume of domestic cargo was 2,374 tonnes in 2009 which increased to 13,746 tonnes in 2018.
There is a Tk 30-billion cargo market in Bangladesh, of which Biman carries only 10 per cent.
The remaining 90 per cent cargoes are carried by freighters of foreign airlines, including Emirates, Etihad, Qatar, Cathay Pacific, China Southern, China Eastern, Singapore Airlines and Malaysian Airlines.
Biman Bangladesh Airlines earned Tk 3.15 billion in the fiscal year (FY) 2015-16. The earnings came down to Tk 2.50 billion in FY 2016-17.
Considering the huge potential of the sector, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in January this year asked Biman to add freighters to its fleet for carrying more cargoes.
On August 22, she announced that Biman would procure two freighters. She made the announcement while inaugurating the 3rd Boeing 787 Dreamliner 'Gaangchil'.
The Biman board in a meeting on Tuesday decided to buy two cargo planes. When asked about the procurement, Civil Aviation Ministry Addl Secretary Mokabbir Hossain said definitely the addition of the two planes to its fleet would raise its cargo volume.
If there are dedicated cargo flights of the Biman, the traders would stop using chartered planes for carrying their consignments.
Cargo security is a very important issue when it comes to increasing the cargo volume and its share in the global freighter service market.
Different countries including the UK, EU countries and Australia imposed restrictions on direct cargo flights from Dhaka after Biman failed to pass the safety and security tests.
The Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) took a set of measures to improve the cargo security system, training, standard quality control system and security policy documents updating in line with the standard of International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
In March 2016, Redline Aviation Security Ltd was hired as a consultant in this regard for two years. It trained 602 staffers. These people trained 4,494 staff members of CAAB. These trained security personnel are working and monitoring airport and cargo security.
The countries that imposed ban on direct air cargo lifted suspension in February 2018 after a significant progress was made in meeting a number of important security conditions.
Recently, CAAB submitted a report on the steps taken to improve passenger luggage and cargo management at the airports to the parliamentary standing committee on civil aviation and tourism ministry in its 6th meeting held on August 28.
CAAB said it has installed state-of-the-art (explosive detection system) machine in the export cargo zone to ensure uninterrupted cargo movement and seven dual view X-ray scanning machines at cargo village along with setting up of RA3 zone.
Besides, various machinery and equipment were installed at the international airports in 2017 to beef up airport security under the 'Supply of Emergency Equipment and Installation' project.
CAAB installed eight dual view hold baggage scanning machines, 14 cabin baggage scanning machines, six liquid explosive detection systems, 14 explosive trace detectors (ETDs), nine under vehicle scanning systems, five barriers with RFID card reader (vehicle), and four flap barriers (human).
In 2017, CAAB also installed various equipments under the 'Improvement of Safety and Security System of Bangladesh Airports' project financed by JICA and CAAB.
Under the project, two fire vehicles, five dual view hold baggage X-ray scanning machines, seven sets of hold baggage explosive trace detectors, one anti-explosive container, two cabin luggage scanning machines, 19 sets of access control system, one set of ATC simulator, and one set of performance-based navigation (PBN) flight procedure design system were installed.
Two more projects are in progress with financial support from the Japanese government for installation of some other equipment. These include two explosive detection system machines, six body scanners, five patrol cars and 382 CCTV cameras.