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ZIA

3 March 2004, 18:00 PM
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
By Eng. M A Siddique, Project Engineer, ZIA, Dhaka
3 March 2004, 18:00 PM
Dhaka's Zia International Airport has improved a lot in the past few years. The airport check-in and immigration layouts have improved remarkably during the last two years. The departure portion is now comparable to most other international airports. The new parking structure attached to the main terminal is a great job done. The arrival portion is still messy, especially outside the airport. Placing transparent glass between the baggage unloading people and the baggage claiming passengers has also reduced the baggage cutting (stealing) disasters.

However, still there is a lot of scope for improvement in the following areas:

The duty free shop: Going in to the duty shop at the Dhaka airport, foreigners would definitely want to find stuff to take back home that represents Bangladesh. Currently, there's very little in that shop that gives an essence of Bangladesh.

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Real-time arrival/departures: It must link its real-time flight arrival/departures to internet sites which would be very valuable contribution towards passenger satisfaction.

Luggage handling for arriving passengers takes a very long time. One can also see the handlers tossing luggage on the conveyor belts, not a pretty site. A yellow cab booth should be opened somewhere inside the terminal building so that people don't get hassled by the cab drivers and middlemen.

Next improvement must involve changing of several security personnel who ruin the day for many by mishandling the situation. First-time foreigners with no one to meet may still be perplexed at the chaos, once outside the neat terminal.