Legal notice served over controversial decisions on Wizz Air flight operations

A lawyer of the Supreme Court has served a legal notice for approving the ultra-low-cost Abu Dhabi-based airline Wizz Air to commercially carry passengers to and from Dhaka under an aviation trade agreement between the two countries.
The notice was served to the secretary of the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism, managing director and CEO of the national carrier Biman, chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) and members of the CAAB flight standards and regulations on May 14, sources confirmed.
The notice termed the CAAB decision a wrong economic policy that will bring down Bangladesh’s aviation sector amid the dollar crunch.
Soon after a report titled “Wizz Air eyes Bangladesh’s aviation market” published on Dhaka Tribune on May 7, the legal notice was served.
The notice emphasized that the five UAE-based airlines in Bangladesh — Emirates, Etihad Airways, Flydubai, Air Arabia, and Air Arabia Abu Dhabi — would face risk in their business operations with the entry of a low-cost airline in the country.
Not only the international airlines, the country’s private and national airlines — Biman, US Bangla, NovoAir, and AirAstra — would also face the risk of losing passengers.
In this regard, all airways of the country including Biman protested CAAB’s decisions and termed the approval of Wizz Air against the country’s interest.
However, the civil aviation ministry said, until recently, they were unaware of the new airline.
The country’s airways blamed that CAAB did not consult domestic airlines on the decision and secretly secured permission to run Wizz Air flight operations from and to Bangladesh.
Wizz Air got approval to temporarily operate seven weekly flights from Chittagong in 2022 but they have yet to start operation, CAAB insiders had said.
A high-level delegation from the aviation regulatory body of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA), is in Dhaka on a two-day, CAAB media unit confirmed and mentioned that a meeting was held on Monday.
According to meeting sources, GCAA delegations’ team proposed five airlines including the new Wizz Air of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to seek permanent permission to operate flights from Bangladesh to third countries under the fifth freedom facility while they are also placed to increase flight frequency.
A decision will be taken in this regard in the second meeting scheduled to be held on Tuesday.
However, as part of the policy, the UAE authorities have already received permission to operate their flights in India and Pakistan with an aim to capture the subcontinent’s aviation market.
According to sources, Wizz Air is popular as they offer heavily discounted tickets.
Officials of four domestic airlines — Biman, US Bangla, NovoAir, and AirAstra — expressed frustration over the mooted introduction of Wizz Air and claimed CAAB was working against the interests of the country.
The significantly lower prices offered by Wizz Air would lead to domestic airlines competing on uneven footing, and domestic airlines are already struggling to attract passengers on Middle East-bound routes, they complained.
Bangladeshi airlines are yet to fully utilize the flights they received under the current agreement with the UAE. If Wizz Air is now given additional flights on these routes, the aviation market to the Middle East will be lost, the officials said.
A top Biman official said: “While the government is signing an agreement to purchase Airbuses in phases to develop Biman, the aviation apex body, CAAB, is going to allow new airline Wizz Air of the United Arab Emirates to fly from Bangladesh.”
According to industry insiders, Wizz Air’s airline frequency is high, so the airline will shake up our aviation market and domestic airlines will lose it.
They suggested that air services between the two countries should be arranged in a reciprocal way so that both countries’ aviation sectors will be benefited.
In this regard, the government needs to give more importance to the country’s interest and prioritize what benefits its aviation sector before considering foreign airlines, they added.