Upgrading beach-city Cox's Bazar airport to international status stalls with the government declaration retracted as the HSIA fire ordeals prove its infrastructure inadequacies on many counts, sources say.
Official sources told The Financial Express that the decision is prompted by the blaze at the cargo village of Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka on October 18, just within a week of the declaration of Bangladesh's fourth international airport at the tourist haven.
"The government is unwilling to take further operational risks without ensuring proper safety measures and necessary infrastructural preparations," said a senior official involved with the process.
A circular suspending the earlier declaration is likely to be issued soon, effectively scrapping the previous order upgrading the status of the airport from domestic to international one.
Declaring an international airport requires proper infrastructure and compliance with legal provisions, including cargo facilities, warehouses, and bonded areas, according to aviation and customs regulations.
Commerce and Civil Aviation Adviser of the interim government Sheikh Basiruddin confirmed to the FE the latest government decision to put the move on hold.
Noor-E-Alam, a member (ATM) of the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB), has said a proposal has already been sent to the Civil Aviation Ministry recommending a reversal of the declaration.
"We have been asked to suspend the move, so we are doing so," he said, declining to provide further details.
On October 13, the CAAB declared Cox's Bazar's as an international airport with immediate effect-a move that caught customs authorities by surprise, as they had not been consulted beforehand.
Under the Customs Act 2023, declaring an international airport requires a series of legal steps, including notification of customs warehouses, bonded areas, customs zones, aircraft-landing areas, and cargo-handling and-assessment facilities-all of which must be formalized through a gazette notification.
Overriding these provisions, no government body has the authority to declare any facility, domestic or international, as a port of entry.
Officials familiar with the developments said the infrastructure at Cox's Bazar Airport is still not ready for full-fledged international flight operations.
A senior customs official says the airport's premature declaration ignored mandatory provisions under the Customs Act and could lead to legal complications and risk of accident in cargo handling.
"Neither the Civil Aviation Ministry nor the CAAB has contacted the customs authority to take necessary measures for establishing a designated entry port," the official adds.
For imported goods, customs must determine a secured unloading area and bonded-warehouse facilities-steps that have yet to be initiated.
Sources said the National Board of Revenue (NBR) has also not been contacted to coordinate the legal and logistical framework required for international-airport operations.
Earlier, the CAAB had planned to begin limited international operations from Cox's Bazar later this month as part of a "soft launch," with full-scale services expected after completion of ongoing upgrades.
Biman Bangladesh Airlines had even scheduled its maiden international flight on the Cox's Bazar-Kolkata-Cox's Bazar route via Dhaka, marking what was supposed to be a new chapter in regional air connectivity and tourism.
The airport-upgradation project, launched in 2021, aims to transform it into a full-fledged international gateway. A separate runway-expansion project is underway to extend the existing 6,775-foot airstrip to 9,000- foot one, enabling it to accommodate wide-body aircraft by December 2026.
Once completed, Cox's Bazar would become the country's fourth international airport, after Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (Dhaka), Osmani International Airport in Sylhet, and Shah Amanat International Airport in Chattogram.
Aviation-expert Kamrul Islam, General Manager of US-Bangla Airlines, observes that no airline has yet committed to launching international flights from Cox's Bazar.
"It would not be commercially viable at this stage, as only a few destinations appeal to tourists," he says. "If the government aims to attract foreign tourists, adequate tourism facilities must be developed first."
He further notes that "soft launches" in Bangladesh's aviation sector have often struggled, citing the failure to operationalize the third terminal of Hazrat Shahjalal Airport even after one and a half years. "This raises the question-why is the interim government repeating the same mistake with Cox's Bazar?"
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