Biman: An insider's view

The same is happening with Biman, the only difference being this is a company that is facing impending collapse. While the other losing concerns are kept afloat, why is it that the government is doing everything possible to see the last of the national flag carrier? Because this organization once served the purpose of the vested quarters when it was alive and well, now it will serve them better if it is killed off. After all, the airline business is one of the most lucrative businesses these days, and with Biman around, others don't stand a chance.

Biman does not make profit. How do we voice our right to exist? Simple. We do not run this corporation, the government does. Historically, the people who were at the helm of its management were exploiting Biman. It goes way back to the era when the F-27s and the 707s were sold right after total refurbishment and with a huge amount of spares to go with them. It is believed that the perpetrators made millions of dollars in the deal.

When the ATPs were purchased, we only expressed out opinion that it was not a good idea to buy them. The Airbuses were bought at an inflated price, we could not care less because it was not our duty to police the government. When the 737s were leased unnecessarily, we voiced our disapproval. But when the junk F-28s were purchased, we protested in disgust, because not only it endangered the lives of our valued passengers, it threatened our own safety maybe a few hundred times more. Then the DC-10s and Airbus-310s were leased at a rate the skeptics say would be adequate for lease-cum-purchase, meaning, by this time we should own them with the money we paid for them.

In late 2003, Biman board of directors approved purchase of four Boeing 777s and six Airbus 330s. We were jubilant because we thought that this decision would make up for the feeling of being let down by the government following 9/11. Big airlines were struggling for survival, their modern aircrafts stranded all around the globe. These aircrafts were ours for the taking at minimal price, because they had to count parking charge for each one of them.

At that time, Biman was flying high, with virtually no terror threat, with all the right reasons to go for the planned expansion of routes and further. But we could not impress the policy makers. We had the leased 737s and 310s, on top of that, we were made to purchase the F-28s, which were not airworthy at the time of purchase. But we failed to sieze the opportunity to own modern aircraft like the 777s, 767s, or the Airbuses. Instead, we were forced to take in the junk called F-28 (the Biman press release actually termed them "ultramodern F-28").

With Biman board approving the purchase of ten new aircrafts, we thought that our frustration was adequately addressed. But the finance minister rejected the proposal in the Ecnec meeting in spite of the fact that the government had a very small financial involvement in the deal. A few days after that, the finance minister in a statement said that the Biman aircrafts are too old and they need replacing.

After that the whole idea went underground for unexplained reasons. The 777s were offered at a price of approximately $123 million each and the 330s at around $100 million each. These aircrafts were supposed to be delivered around this time, and today the price of the 777s stand at $235 million each while the price of the 330s at $190 million each. Simple math says that one decision by the finance minister has cost Biman a total of $988 million!

Today we are begging to salvage Biman with a meager allocation of Tk 1,800 crore. What does Biman get? Biman gets Tk 150 crore and advice to cut down losses. It is another way of sating: "Count your losses and start packing, you are out of business." With the existing equipment that we have, Biman can survive like a patient in coma, only with the help of life support equipment.

By legislation Biman does not, in effect, have a say in its own management. It runs on the will and whim of the government. By legislation it is a welfare organization. Whether it should make profit or run as a charitable organization is up to the government. Only in recent times has it become apparent to us that there is an obvious plan to choke Biman to death, leaving 5,500 of its employees jobless.

We can either sit back and watch the slow and painful death of Biman or resist this evil plan. It must be understood that the corporation will now demand full freedom in the planning and the running of the corporation, since the government has lost its credibility as far as Biman is concerned.

Other than Biman, all the state-owned airlines are thriving in the expanding travel market. We were not allowed to take our share of the booming market. Dhaka itself is one of the most lucrative destinations for all the airlines operating in the region. We have seen new airlines opening up operation at Dhaka while the old ones have doubled or tripled their frequency. All this time we had to watch others prosper with our government's help, while we had to shrink our operation due to non-cooperation by the government and lack of planning.

Starting an airline is not as easy as opening a satellite TV channel. You cannot remove a national flag carrier from the screen by merely pressing a button on your remote. With us around, others will have "away-field" disadvantage. Probably that is the reason that some would like to kill this organization off.

Now that we aim to stand up for our rights, we might as well understand our priorities and how to go about attaining them.

• We shall have to get rid of the corruption, and seal the loopholes that lead to corruption (this process is already underway and significant ground made).
• Get our heads down into serious market study.
• Revive the fleet structure approved by the Biman board of directors but rejected by Ecnec. (Of course it has to be updated with the present scenario because those aircrafts will be out dated by the time we get them delivered, we should be contemplating Boeing-787s and Airbus 350s!).
• Overhaul our management system, if required appoint specialist consultants. We shall have to ask the suppliers/manufacturers for interim operation of the airline with viable aircrafts on lease basis, till the time we get delivery of the new aircrafts.

These are decisions that cannot wait. Injecting money in small amounts may keep it alive for the time being, but we should be looking for means to sustain on our own. Leasing or purchasing old aircraft will pull us down to the same abyss time and again that we are already in.

If the paperwork and the deals are not done before the caretaker government takes over, I doubt the survival of this organization, since the caretaker government will not take responsibility for the organization left alone to die by an elected government.