Air ticket fares go beyond passenger’s capacity

Staff Reporter :
The fare of air ticket in the country is skyrocketing day by day in the country mounting huge pressure of the expatriates and Umrah pilgrims in the country.
It is alleged that a group of illegal and dishonest syndicate is controlling the air ticket of international airlines in the country. As a result the Middle East and Malaysia bound migrant workers and Umrah Hajj pilgrims’ lamentation for air ticket.
Another allegation also raised that fraud ring are selling air ticket with unexpected high price as foreign bound passengers counting more money.
After hours of waiting in long queues at airlines sales offices, passengers saw that airfare had almost doubled or even tripled in some instances.
Moreover, the syndicate has blocked all international airlines tickets after booked tickets.
The air fare has been increased several times in post-pandemic crisis.
For instance, the airfare for Dhaka-Kuwait was between Tk 39,000 and Tk 42,000 before the pandemic, but it reached Tk 80,000-90,000 currently, with no sign of decreasing.
The same is seen for the Dhaka-Dubai and Dhaka-Muscat routes, both having seen a rise in ticket prices.
There is same situation in Dhaka-Doha route also.
The worst case, however, has been for passengers and migrants travelling to Saudi Arabia.
A passenger from an airline seeking anonymity said that a ticket for Riyadh-bound flights would cost Tk 30,000-36,000 during the pre-pandemic times, but now the price reached Tk 90,000.
According to a source of Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism said there is another cause for increasing air tickets is dollor crisis.
Source said dollar rates have jumped Tk 90 to Tk 103 which made another pressure to raise the air ticket.
On the issue Association of Travel Agents of Bangladesh (ATAB) Deputy Secretary General Golam Mahmud Buhyan Manik said that the number of Umrah pilgrims will increase in the upcoming Ramzan. That is why the airlines are not showing the ticket prices after March 20 in order to increase the fares.
 Biman Bangladesh Airlines has no U Class seats available for Umrah pilgrims. Agencies are compulsorily buying Umrah tickets at higher prices than Alpha class and other classes. An Umrah pilgrim has to buy a ticket for more than one lakh taka he added.
On the other hand, Abu Daud Faisal, organising secretary of Bangladesh Hajjatri and Haji Kalyan Parishad, said that the price of tickets for expatriate workers and Umrah pilgrims is increasing day by day due to the devaluation of the dollar and the dollar crisis. Group fare ticket syndicates are creating crisis by blocking the cycle. It is important to set the ticket price at a reasonable level.