Editorial
Biman in the soup
Salvage measures imperative
Already afflicted with mismanagement, corruption and aging fleet, little wonder, the national flag carrier Biman is plagued by a severe fund crisis.
Unless an emergency fund of around Tk 10 billion is pumped into rescuing Biman, it will be hard to keep it afloat.
The sorry state in which Biman finds itself in has not come out of the blue. In the four decades since its inception, the national flag carrier ran into losses for about 23 years. It, however, made some profits, in the remainder 17 years including during caretaker government in 2008 and the first half of 2009.
But is severe fund crisis the only problem now staring Biman in the face? And if the government somehow manages the 10 billion Taka emergency funds, will then Biman be able to stand on its feet again?
A deeper look into Biman's endless problems will show that the fund crisis is not the cause, but the result of the perennial ailments it has been suffering from which include accumulating debts from not paying fuel bills, huge costs of maintenance of its decrepit vessels, not paying hotel bills for its flight crews when flying abroad and so on.
A 13 June report of this paper said, unless the outdated aircraft are replaced by 2013, Biman runs the risk of permanent paralysis.
What is urgent at this point is to prioritise the most nagging problems and address those in order. These include steps like replacing some of the old aircraft and downsizing the organisation. Plugging the loopholes or leakage, wastage and curbing covert and covert corruption and reducing avoidable costs will be equally important.
Moreover, scrupulous maintenance of flight schedules, on-line ticketing and improvement of on-board service deserve immediate attention.
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