Whose baby is it, anyway?

Internecine feud among the members of the board of directors of the United Airways Limited (UAL), a private airliner operating on both domestic and international routes, had forced the airliner to suspend its operation abruptly late last week, keeping more than 1,000 outbound and inbound passengers stranded in Dhaka and four out stations, namely, Jeddah, Muscat, Dubai and Kuala Lumpur.
Officials of the UAL suspended all on a sudden the UAL flights from Wednesday, following the resignation of chairman of the board of directors  and managing director of the airlines Tasbirul Ahmed Chowdhury, for not having enough cash to pay for the fuels and other relevant fees and charges to the airports.
Though the board was reconstituted along with the appointment of a new chairman, no sense of direction was available for resumption of operation by the airliner immediately.
However, the airliner resumed its operation from Saturday last following an amicable settlement of disputes between the board members and Mr. Chowdhury, who has taken over the rein of the airliner again. In fact, the opposing section of the directors had to give in to the overwhelming presence and influence of Mr. Chowdhury.
All concerned were happy to see the resumption of the operation of the UAL particularly when instances of a good number of local private airliners going out of business since 1995 are there. In fact, the aviation industry in Bangladesh has been a troubled one. A good number of airliners entered the business with enthusiasm but within years they started facing troubles and, finally, had to stop operations. Among other factors, lack of necessary expertise is blamed for the premature demise of a good number of private airliners in Bangladesh.
The very recent developments centring around the UAL, however, have exposed the poor corporate and management culture that the Bangladesh businesses tend to pursue. The UAL is not just a small private commercial entity having no impact on anyone other than its owner/s. In fact, the developments had a bearing on nearly 1,000 passengers both at home and abroad, thousands of shareholders who have put in their money in it and the banks and financial institutions that have made available loans to the company.  
When the airliner suspended its operations triggering enough  anxiety among passengers holding the air tickets issued by it, shareholders and banks concerned, it did appear that none had any clue to the developments surrounding the airliner. Moreover, no government agency had responded to the crisis immediately and did anything to resolve it.
Had not the board members themselves resolved the dispute amicably and resumed the operation by the UAL, no official agency could have done anything about it. In that case, the passengers would have to buy new tickets from other airliners to reach their respective destinations.  Both shareholders and financiers would have left with no option other than remaining worried about losing their investments.  
Fortunately, things have not gone that bad, finally. But the worst could have happened.
However, the policymakers cannot ignore the situation that had led to the suspension of operation of the UAL and consequently no official response to the crisis. The closure of the UAL would have affected the interests of passengers holding its air tickets and thousands of shareholders who have more than 75 per cent stake in the listed company and also bankers.
At least two official entities had reasons to be concerned by the very recent developments centring around the UAL. The organisations are the civil aviation authority and the securities regulator.
The civil aviation authority did hold a press briefing on the day following the suspension of operation by the UAL and told the press that the 'new management' of the airlines had sough a week's time for resumption of the operation. But the authority did not say anything about the ways to deal with the hassles the passengers stranded in Dhaka and four other international airports were undergoing.
The share prices of the UAL declined by more than 7.6 per cent on the bourses on Thursday last following abrupt suspension of operations. Neither the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) nor the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) had any information about the causes of suspension of the operation by the airlines. The UAL did not make available any information to either of the entities. But the organisations should have tried to get a clear picture about the listed company and disseminate the relevant information to the investors.

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