Can small, abandoned airfields revive Bangladesh’s civil aviation?

As the road network develops, airlines are pushing for new routes to survive. But the civil aviation regulator says it has no plans to expand

Development of roads and highways had unintended consequences for civil aviation.

The Sheikh Hasina-led government has rolled out massive projects to develop the network of roads and highways in Bangladesh over the last decade. Their efforts were crowned by the inauguration of Padma Bridge, the largest bridge in the country’s history, with a vision of easing the movement of people and goods and making transport less expensive.

This development has had some success in its intended goal, but there have been unintended consequences for another sector that transports people and goods and is now worried about its survival – civil aviation.

In order to survive, airlines operating domestically are actively considering and lobbying to expand and open new routes, but their regulator, the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh, has, at least for now, been unmoved.

In its argument, the Aviation Operators Association of Bangladesh, the organisation that represents airlines, said the domestic market for passengers and air cargo has shrunk considerably with the latest development of roads and highway infrastructure. To address this problem, airlines want to open new routes and need new infrastructure, especially airports, to do so.

The association is actively lobbying the CAAB to make those airfields -- either abandoned or operating with limited capacity -- fully operational.

The regulator, however, said making those airports operational is not currently on its list of priorities. Instead, CAAB insiders say they are far more interested in developing the services of already operational airports.

OVERVIEW OF DOMESTIC AVIATION IN BANGLADESH

Bangladesh has three international airports in Dhaka, Chattogram and Sylhet, and five active airports for domestic operations -- Rajshahi, Syedpur in Rangpur, Barishal, Jashore and Cox’s Bazar.

Apart from these, the Khan Jahan Ali airport in Khulna is still 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 down.

There are more abandoned airstrips in Patuakhali, Feni and Tangail and some other parts of the country, which were built during the British era for military aviation, especially to defend its borders when Imperial Japan launched its infamous Burma, currently Myanmar, campaign.

According to independent aviation experts in Bangladesh, domestic air travel in Bangladesh during the pre-independence era started and later developed on the backbone of some of these military airstrips.

The sector’s stakeholders are seeking CAAB’s intervention to take the initiative to restore these abandoned airstrips and those airfields that are partially operational or inactive.

AOAB’s Secretary General Mofizur Rahman broke down the numbers for bdnews24.com, saying the woes of domestic airlines became much more visible after the pandemic.

“Before the pandemic, the domestic market for civil aviation was expanding at least 10 percent a year. The Padma Bridge opened after the pandemic, and suddenly there was a massive drop in passengers on our Barishal route and we are running very few flights. The number of passengers to Jashore has gone down to only 20-25 percent, which forced us to bring the number of daily flights from 15 to five or less,” he said.

As soon as the tunnel under the Karnaphuli River and the rail lines to Cox’s Bazar are fully operational, they will be forced to shut 70 percent of the flights to the beach town, the route that accounts for the bulk of the revenue for AOAB members, according to Mofizur, also the managing director of domestic carrier Novo Air.

WHAT IS THE FUTURE OF DOMESTIC AVIATION?

Mofizur, a former airman for the Bangladesh Air Force, strongly believes there is no scope to expand the domestic aviation market with the current infrastructure and routes, which is why airlines are pushing for new routes.

He laid out the prospects of Rangpur’s Ishwardi, Moulvibazar’s Shamsernagar and Thakurgaon as test cases.

“Ishwardi has a large agro-based economy and is home to the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant, while hundreds of resorts and leisure centres have developed in Moulvibazar over the last decade. The airport in Thakurgaon has some tourism prospects for the farthest northern districts. We strongly believe these three possible routes can open up new opportunities for us.”

Mofizur also highlighted the commercial and eco-tourism prospects of the under-construction airport in Bagerhat.

“The Khan Jahan Ali Airport has massive potential, as it’s the closest airport to the Sundarbans, the Mongla seaport and the Rampal Power Plant. Lots of other businesses are developing in the surrounding area which, we believe, will also help grow our business,” he said.

The civil aviation regulator, however, does not share the same sentiment.

CAAB Chairman Air Vice-Marshal M Mafidur Rahman was clear when he said the regulator has no plan to revive or redevelop abandoned airstrips or expand airfields with limited capacities.

“At present, we are solely focusing on developing the services and infrastructure of existing operational airports,” he said.

Mafidur confirmed that the regulator is working to seize official control of the land of those airstrips and airfields.

“For years, there was illegal encroachment on the land. We are working to remove the illegal encroachers and set up boundary perimeters on the land.”

However, he did not wholly dismiss the idea of expanding the scope of civil aviation in the future.

“Once we complete the tasks on our current priority list, we will commission exploratory studies to find possible locations for new airports.”

[Writing in English and interactive map created by Adil Mahmood]