Biman stops flight on Ctg-Cox’s Bazar route abruptly

National carrier Biman Bangladesh Airlines has stopped flights from Chattogram to Cox's bazar route without any prior declaration.

The sudden decision has put the passengers using this route in a troubled situation.

Biman authorities said that shortage of passengers prompted them to stop the services in the route.

However, a leading travel agency proprietor in the port city told The Business Standard requesting anonymity, "Biman's claim of shortage of passenger in the route is not true. There was a huge demand of tickets in the route."

"We cannot understand how a national carrier can suspend their route without any notice? If they keep doing such things, the passengers may lose their trust from the airlines, which is trying to recover from loss," the travel agency proprietor said.

Passengers said that such decision without any prior statement is "irresponsible" and "not business friendly".

Md Alamgir, executive director of Chattogram based non-profit organization named Organization For The Poor Community Advancement said, "We had plan to arrange a meeting in Cox's Bazar as we have projects there. On Saturday when we went to buy the air tickets, we came to know that there is not flight as Biman suspended their route here. Now we have to cancel the meeting."

"Going to Cox's Bazar by road means wasting a lot of time. The flight was very comfortable and time saving," said Alamgir.

When contacted Nazmul Hasan, district manager of Biman Bangladesh Airlines in Chattogram said, "We cannot continue operating in the route because of insufficient passengers. The order to stop operation in the route came from the Dhaka office, but I was not instructed to make an official announcement on it."

However, he could not confirm when they would open the route again.

Previously, Biman had closed this route for a while and reopened on March 26, 2018.

Three weekly flights on- Saturday, Monday and Thursday used to operate from Chattogram to Cox's Bazar. It was very popular to the holiday makers as they could spend the weekend by the beach, leaving for Cox's Bazar on Thursday and returning to Chattogram on Saturday.