Airlines Fail to Attract Passengers despite Lucrative Discounts

Airlines in Bangladesh have failed to lure Eid passengers despite offering attractive discounts.

According to industry insiders, air tickets are mostly offered at least 15 days before Eid-UL - Fitr and Eid-Ul-Adha. Yet this time, most of the seats are already unsold. Although prominent airlines, such as the US-Bangla and Novoair, provided discount rates and other incentives in an attempt to attract them.

Approximately 40 thousand people purchased an air ticket last year during the Eid season. Yet the number of people buying tickets this year is also less than half than the previous years.

The public relations officer of the US-Bangla Md Kamrul Islam reported the news to the media.

He said, “We generally have huge demands of ticket at Jashore, Syedpur and Barishal routes before Eid. But this time, most of the seats in all the classes are empty so far. Moreover, the number of flights have also been reduced due to the pandemic.”

The aviation industry has been in deep water since the worldwide travel ban started in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

Both domestic and state-owned airlines collectively experienced a loss of Tk 1,361 over the months of March and April after the termination of both domestic and foreign routes services.

As the flight service stayed suspended on all routes owing to a volatile coronavirus condition, Biman Bangladesh Airlines accounted for a loss of Tk 939 crore while US-Bangla Airlines Tk 250 crore, Novoair Tk 32 crore and Regent Air Tk 140 crore until March-April.

But the situation didn't changed much since the travel restrictions have eased since June 1. Bangladesh Biman was forced to stop operations due to a shortage of passengers. But they decided to resume their flights on the Chattogram, Syedpur and Sylhet routes for the upcoming Eid from Saturday.

Tahera Khandakar Ahmed, the additional director(PR) of Bangladesh Biman confirmed the news.