Due to lack of adequate boarding bridge operators, the normal activities at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport are being hampered. Every day, around 130 flights operate to and from the airport with 14 operators for 8 boarding bridges.
Authorities feel that the crisis will be tackled if the new organogram is approved. Chittagong airport has two and Sylhet Osmani has one boarding bridge and there are 36 approved posts against which only 17 operators are available. Fourteen are in Dhaka, two in Chittagong and one in Sylhet.
Different airlines’ sources say that eight bridges are not enough.
If more than eight flights operate at one time then airlines’ have to pick up and deposit passengers at the bay area.
A source from the Bangladesh civil aviation authority, says that faced with heavy flight schedule during Eid, airport in Dhaka had to face boarding bridge crisis.
Director general of Biman, Shakil Meraj, says: “we face added pressure if there’s an absence of boarding bridges.”
Handing passengers and baggage without bridges takes added time, he observed.
Director of Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, group captain, Abdullah Al Faruk, said: “we are currently working with a dated workforce; once the new organogram is approved, we will be able to overcome the problem.”