Massive roads and highway development in Bangladesh in the past decade crowned by opening of the Padma Bridge has paved the movement of people and goods easier and less expansive.
But civil aviation sector remains largely neglected risking much of its survival. So airlines operating domestically in the country are actively lobbying to expand and open new routes. But the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) has at least for now no plan in hand.
The Aviation Operators Association of Bangladesh said domestic market for passengers and air cargo has shrunk considerably with the latest development of roads and highway infrastructure. They want to open new routes and need new infrastructure, especially airports, to do so.
The association is actively lobbying with CAAB to make airfields -- either abandoned or operating with limited capacity to fully operational. But CAAB currently not interested in this. They are far more interested to develop the services of already operational airports at the moment.
Bangladesh has three international airports in Dhaka, Chattogram and Sylhet, and five active airports for domestic operations at Rajshahi, Syedpur in Rangpur, Barishal, Jashore and Cox's Bazar.
The Khan Jahan Ali airport in Khulna is under construction while airports in Dhaka's Tejgaon, Bogura and Moulvibazar's Shamsernagar do not have the necessary clearance for civil aviation. Airports in Thakurgaon, Pabna's Ishwardi and Cumilla have been shut.
Airstrips in Patuakhali, Feni and Tangail and at some other parts of the country, built during the British era for military aviation are abandoned.
Domestic air travel in Bangladesh during the pre-independence era started and later developed on the backbone of some of these military airstrips.
Stakeholders now seek CAAB's intervention to take initiative to restore these abandoned airstrips and those partially operational or inactive.
AOAB's Secretary General Mofizur Rahman said the woes of domestic airlines became much more visible after the pandemic. Before that domestic market for civil aviation was expanding at least 10 percent a year. But the opening of the Padma Bridge after the pandemic led to a massive drop in passengers on Barishal route shrinking flights to very few.
The number of passengers to Jashore has gone down to only 20-25 percent, forcing the number of daily flights from 15 to five or less. The opening of Karnaphuli River tunnel and rail lines to Cox's Bazar will moreover force to shut about 70 percent flights to the beach town.
Mofizur, a former airman of Bangladesh Air Force believes there is no scope to expand domestic aviation market with the current infrastructure and routes, which is why airlines are pushing for new routes.
He said Rangpur's Ishwardi, Moulvibazar's Shamsernagar and Thakurgaon can be used as test cases."Ishwardi has a large agro-based economy and closer to Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant. Hundreds of resorts and leisure centres have developed in Moulvibazar over the last decade.
Airport in Thakurgaon has also good tourism prospects, suggesting three possible routes can be opened. Mofizur also highlighted prospect of under-construction airport in Bagerhat which is closer to Sundarbans.
"The Khan Jahan Ali Airport has also massive aviation potential closer to Mongla seaport and Rampal Power Plant wwhere industries are growing in the surrounding area," he said. The civil aviation chairman, however, does not share the same sentiment.
At present, we are solely focusing on developing the services and infrastructure of existing operational airports," he said adding they are working to take control of land of those airstrips and airfields. However, he did not wholly dismiss the idea of expanding the scope of civil aviation in future. bdnews24.com
