SalamAir, an Oman based airline, has been slapped with over Tk 1.22m fine at the Dhaka Airport due to their failure of returning passengers’ luggages.
A mobile court at the Shahjalal International Airport ordered the fine on Wednesday (Sept 12) at complaints from 61 passengers who had their bags left behind at flights operated by the airline.
The Court further warned SalamAir that they will have to pay a fine of Tk 200,000 per passenger if their bags end up left behind without any logical reason.
Regular incidence of passenger bags being left behind has been reported since the launch of SalamAir flights on Aug 29, airport sources say.
Approximately 40 passengers’ bags were left behind in their very first flight. On their second flight to Bangladesh on Aug 30, about 35 passengers were subject to the troubling ordeal. Their third flight on Sept 1 was no different when 30 passengers experienced the same.
Most of the passengers in these flights were Hajj pilgrims.
The situation was brought to the airport-based mobile court’s attention on Wednesday (12 Sept), when 61 passengers of SalamAir flight OV-283 complained that their bags were left behind; 108 bags in total.
The mobile court’s Executive Magistrate Muhammad Yusuf fined SalamAir Tk 20,000 per passenger that is Tk 1.22m for 61 passengers.
The airline was also ordered to return the bags to the passengers in the earliest.
Magistrate Yusuf told Bangla Tribune that the fine was slapped based on complaints from the passengers.
The airline has already made arrangements to bring back 315 bags and Zamzam water following the directive, he added.
He hoped that SalamAir will ensure quality customer service like other airlines.
The airline, however, failed to bring back Zamzam water of the pilgrims, according to sources.
The Oman-based airline is operating with narrow-body planes on this route, which is limiting its capacity to carry all bags of the passengers in a given flight.