Hajj flight mess-up

It seems something has gone awfully wrong with attending to the pilgrims' travel needs from day one. Only the other day there was a controversy over air fare that the non-ballotee pilgrims were asked to pay. Now Biman is finding it difficult to maintain its schedule. The point is that Hajj is usually performed by elderly men and women, who need to keep their wits about them and, would therefore, have no uncertainties in their travel arrangements. The ordeal of having to wait at the airport for a long time, only to learn that the flight was not on must have been unbearable for many of them.

Now, the problem has arisen from a failure to timely negotiate lease agreements with other airlines necessitated by Biman's limited capacity to carry the huge passenger load. It has been reported that international tenders were floated a number of times for hiring aircraft on lease, but Biman authorities could not take any decision as no airline offered commissions that they were looking for. Finally, they could procure planes in a week's time through a realistic approach.

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We can see that a commercial airline has to look for the cheapest possible deal, but then it is equally true that the Hajj passengers do not fall in the ordinary category. Here quick decision-making was a matter of paramount importance. Furthermore, Hajj is an annual event and the Biman management is well aware of the nature of the job it has to perform and yet they failed to plan for it. It's proof of how bad Biman's mismanagement can get.