The achievement in the aviation sector of Bangladesh has been overshadowed by fatal air accidents in the outgoing calendar year 2018.
Globally too, the year can be marked as the year of accidents.
The deadliest accident involving any Bangladeshi airliner took place on March 12 this year when a scheduled international passenger flight of US-Bangla Airlines (Flight 211) crashed during landing in Nepal and burst into flames. The 78-seater Bombardier Dash-8 Q400 was carrying 67 passengers and four crew members on board. Of them, 52 people died while 19 survived.
Then again another Boeing 737 aircraft of US-Bangla Airlines carrying 164 passengers on board and seven crew members from Dhaka made a forced landing in Chattogram on September 27 after its nose gear failed while flying to Cox's Bazar. All the 171 on board survived except about 40 passengers who were slightly injured and 70 suffered trauma.
On October 03, a wheel problem forced a Biman Bangladesh Airlines aircraft to make an emergency landing at Sylhet's Osmani International Airport. All 65 passengers on board and the crew were safe.
These were some of the accidents involving local airlines.
Among the international accidents, the crash of the Indonesian budget carrier Lion Air was the deadliest in 2018.
On October 29, the Boeing 737 Max 8 of Lion Air took off from Jakarta, Indonesia and crashed into the Jakarta Sea, 13 minutes after takeoff. All 189 passengers and crew were killed in the accident.
There were, however, achievements made in Bangladesh's aviation industry in 2018. Of those, the lifting of the UK government's ban on cargoes from the Dhaka airport was the most significant one. On February 18, the UK government withdrew the ban on the Dhaka-London direct air cargo, two years after the authorities imposed an embargo on it citing poor security at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA).
In October, the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) received the ICAO award for its achievement in many indicators of airport safety. Bangladesh has seen tremendous progress in the effective implementation of ICAO SARPs rising from 50.8 per cent to 76 per cent as verified by the ICAO validation mission in November 2017. This also reflects the country's overall safety status.
All the local airlines companies increased the aircraft number and expanded their routes, both domestic and international in 2018.
The national flag carrier Biman registered 11 per cent passenger growth in 2018, the highest in its history, carrying a total of 2.6 million passengers. In 2019, they expect to make it 2.9 million. Biman has doubled its flight frequency on all the seven domestic routes. Biman has also introduced cargo services for seven days a week for smooth cargo handling and reduction of congestion.
Besides, Biman added two Boeing 787 Dreamliners of its own to the fleet in 2018 raising the total number of aircraft to 15. It helped increase flight frequency on international routes. A Dash Q400 was also added to the fleet which helped increase the flight frequency on domestic routes.
The private airline company NOVOAIR consolidated its position in the domestic market operation lifting its market share to 40 per cent. NOVOAIR also registered a phenomenal growth of 61 per cent in passenger carrying. The airliner expects to raise the passenger number to 1.3 million from 0.8 million in 2019 by increasing its number of aircraft and flight frequency.
The US-Bangla Airlines too has added Guangzhou to its international route list in 2018. They had seven international routes earlier. But after the Nepal crash, they suspended the Kathmandu flight operation. They expect to increase the number of flights within the first quarter of 2019 and increase flight frequency on both international and domestic routes.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) forecasts that the aviation industry will experience better time in 2019 with a decline in jet fuel prices.
Bangladesh could not achieve the category-1 status in 2018 despite so many efforts to improve its safety oversight and legislative policy. A Category 1 rating by Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) means that the state civil aviation authority complies with ICAO standards.
In 2012 the CAAB was rated Category 2 by the FAA under the International Aviation Safety Assessment program (IASA).
The FAA conducted a Technical Review of the Safety Oversight provided by CAAB in February 2018.
In its report, FAA said Bangladesh took significant steps towards developing and implementing an effective safety oversight system that meets ICAO requirements.
The role of CAAB is under question in the development of aviation industry. The aviation industry still lacks a favourable policy and business environment here.
The capacity of the airports is not increasing proportionately with the growth of air passengers in the country. The weekly flight frequency to Saidpur airport has increased to 70 from the previous three. That's why often there are minor accidents. The condition of runway is miserable at the Rajshahi airport. Traffic congestion is created at Cox's Bazar as two big aircraft cannot land on the narrow runway. For example, if a Boeing 737 of Biman lands at Cox's Bazar, the smaller aircraft of any other airlines have to hold in the sky.
The airlines companies have been operating with negative profit year after year. Specially, the six-fold increase in jet fuel prices from July 2017 to September 2018 has put the operators in disarray.
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