Suspension of Online Ticketing: People suffer as Biman’s row with sales partner drags on

Like other times, Anisur Rahman, a London-bound passenger, was planning to purchase tickets from Biman Bangladesh Airline's website using his phone.

For Anisur, this is convenient and time saving, but above all, a safe way of getting tickets amid the pandemic.

However, when he tried to buy tickets online, he couldn't, due to an ongoing suspension of the service. He even tried with other online platforms where they usually sell Biman tickets, but to no avail.

"Now, I'll have to go to a Biman sales centre, which is not only time consuming but also risky," he told The Daily Star recently.

Anisur is not the only one. Hundreds of intended passengers are bearing the brunt of the situation, as online sale of Biman's air-tickets has remained suspended for almost a week.

"Biman is our national flag carrier. We don't expect such unprofessional behaviour from them," said Doha-bound passenger Md Aminul Islam.

Meanwhile, Biman authorities blamed Travelshop Limited, the exclusive service provider of Biman for selling tickets online, for suspending their services.

Travelshop, on the other hand, claimed that they were forced to suspend the service, as Biman didn't pay its dues.

Amid this row, passengers looking to buy tickets online continue to crowd Biman ticket sales centres, that too, in this prevailing pandemic situation.

Proprietors of different travel agencies also said they are finding it difficult to sell Biman air-tickets, due to the suspension.

Arun Mazumder, proprietor of SkyJet Tours and Travels, said travel agents now need to get in touch with a Biman call centre and then send an application to Biman authorities to get tickets for passengers. "This is time consuming and frustrating for both passengers and us," he said.

Contacted, Dr Abu Saleh Mostafa Kamal, managing director and CEO of Biman, said the national flag carrier hired Travelshop on a temporary basis in 2019 to sell tickets online, under a mutual agreement to encourage the country's service providers.

"But the company repeatedly failed at various stages in the full implementation of the expected activities. Finally, from August 10 [this year], they stopped providing relevant services to Biman in a completely unreasonable and unethical manner, and tried to create confusion in people's minds," he said.

"In order to dispel this confusion, we want to inform all that Biman is going to ensure the provision of advanced online services through a world-recognised service provider soon."

The Biman MD, however, said it might take two to three months to complete the total procedure in this regard.

Asked if they have taken any measures to tackle the situation, he said, "If any passenger calls us, we will send tickets to their mobile phone or to their residence, if they inform our call centre."

He said the ongoing process of purchasing, changing and refunding tickets for all routes of Biman through its domestic and foreign sales offices, authorised travel agencies and call centres is underway.

In addition, the sales centre at Biman's head office in Balaka is open 24 hours a day, he assured.

When asked, SM Mukhtadir, chief operating officer of Travelshop, said they have sent at least 20 letters to Biman in the last 17 months to get their dues worth Tk 37 lakh.

"But Biman authorities didn't bother to respond, let alone pay our dues," he said.

"US-based company Amazon, who hosts our web server, gave us an ultimatum that they will stop their service unless we clear their dues within August 10. Informing this matter, we again wrote to Biman, but they didn't reply," said Mukhtadir.

He said Amazon suspended providing services to them from August 10, as they failed to pay their dues.

Asked about Biman's allegations, he said since the agreement, they had been providing services to Biman without any hindrance, and there was no complaint in this regard.

He also said tickets worth Tk 125 crore have been sold through Biman's online platform since the pandemic started last year.

"How were we able to sell so many tickets, if the quality of our services was not up to the mark? If you want to provide online services, you need a server at present, and Biman will have to pay for it. If the airline does not pay the server rent, then it is normal that the service will be suspended. There is no incompetence here," he said.

Asked about the issue, Biman MD said they have never paid the server fee before and have cleared service-related bills on time.

"But all of a sudden, they [Travelshop] are asking for the money. If they have an issue with their host company, they should have resolved it first, rather than demanding money from us," he added.