Biman passenger ordeal

It was awful. The flight was scheduled for 7:25pm on the 8th. Accordingly, we prepared to leave residence to board the plane. But at the last moment a brother and friend who was also travelling together informed us over phone that the flight was cancelled until the 10th with the flight time as 3am on July 11. Being wary, before reporting to the airport, we checked up from the flight information about the status of the flight. To our surprise we were informed that the flight was further delayed and the new schedule was around 12 noon. Accordingly we reported at the airport only to know that the plane was further delayed by around two hours. We had no option but to wait at the airport until we were allowed to check in. Having completed the immigration and customs formalities we waited in the lounge up to the boarding time. We were allowed to board around 3 pm.

In the plane, the passengers were not comfortable because the air conditioner did not work and there was no water in the toilet. The worst effected passengers were the ones who reported at the airport the previous night since they were uninformed about the delay. They passed a sleepless night with little or no food. Some complained that hardly any Biman official enquired about their plight or welfare. It was really unfortunate that the Biman officials failed to extend the minimum courtesy or assistance.

In such a situation (cancelled or delayed flights) the foreign airlines officials not only express their regret for the inconvenience but extend all out cooperation and assistance (hotel accommodation, food, etc). I remember when I boarded a British Airways flight for London earlier at Dhaka airport, there was delay in the flight for some reasons. The airline officials not only took reasonable care of the passengers, but even sent a cheque of about 28 pound sterling after a few weeks to me (and probably to other passengers) as a token compensation for the inconvenience suffered.

The above being a sad personal experience with Biman, I would suggest that appropriate steps both by the government and Biman should be taken to improve its performance so that confidence in passengers could be restored and Biman regain its image as a competitive airline. I may also suggest that Biman should pay some monetary compensation to the passengers of the flight discussed above. This is the minimum that Biman can do. Further Biman should ground its planes which are old and not trouble-free. It should replace and update its fleet with new planes and should never go for old or second hand ones. Biman has already suffered a lot due to the old planes and should not buy problems any more.