Report Body

Purpose of writing this report There are few reasons behind writing this report. Very first reason is to reveal the history and the problems that Biman Bangladesh Airlines is going through to the people and make them understand what can be done in this situation and how to prevent upcoming problems. And another is reason is, Multinational business organizations and our local business needs airline support deficiently. This kind of report can be very helpful for the people of Bangladesh, associated and concerned government bodies and business organizations to understand the situation and invest their money and to improve the on going dreadful and terrible situation.

Limitations of this report While preparing this report we faced some limitations. And within that boundary we have to search for the answers to our problem. We faced the following problems while preparing this report; • • • • • •

The time we had got was not sufficient to find out such a huge history of over 34 years. Our budget was too low so we could not search for the best result possible. But we tried our heart and soul to find out best possible information within our financial boundary. There were some unavoidable problems such as pressure of other courses. So we could not put so much effort on the topic. Some historical events happened before our birth so we could not visualize the situation and don’t know the impact of that incident. We used the comments of those people who have visualized the situation. While preparing this report some of the historical information was absent. And some of the historical information is really lost which are not stated in this report. We only included the opinions and experiences from our real life, passengers/customers and employees from Dhaka. So other branches of Biman in this country and outside are not that much stated in this report.

Sources and Methods of Colleting Information We mainly collected data in 4 ways; • • • •

Personal Experiences: We used our personal experiences and past memories to recall the history and the impact. Books and Newspapers: We used books, newspapers, and magazines to find out the history and information. Internet: Internet and Websites were really helpful to find out the information. Customers, Employees and Critics: We went to experienced customers, critics, journalists and employees of Biman to find out the history.

History of Airline Business ong before heavier-than-air craft left the ground, Americans were thinking in terms of airlines. The first were just straight lines on the map, indicating the shortest distance between two places. Ignoring the inconvenience of mountains and valleys, forests and swamps, visionaries of nineteenth-century America zipped directly from one place to another in their imaginations. Legislators spoke loftily of air lines; one member of Congress is recorded as saying in 1813, "They will not rigidly observe any air-lines or water-lines in enforcing their necessary levies," and another in 1840, "The bill of the House supposed that they must travel through the air, for they were to charge for their mileage by an air line." When railroads were built, if the topography did not intervene, developers aimed to follow the direct airline between two points. This was possible across the great plains of the West. But even when there was landscape to reckon with, airline was used to mean "the shortest way possible." In 1863, for example, the Congressional Globe reported "a proposition to construct an air-line railroad between Washington and New York." And air-line became an attractive name for a railroad, just as instant did for foods in the next century. There was the Raleigh and Augusta Air-Line Railroad, the Selma & Peatville Air-line Railway, and the Muscogee Air Line, among many others. The most long-lived of the air-line railroads was the Seaboard Air Line along the Atlantic coast. That name led to misunderstandings for the railroad when transportation lines involving airplanes began to use the name. An advertisement in an outdoors magazine of 1921 read, "The Air Line to the Big Woods...Cutting Days to Hours in Getting Into the Land of Lakes and Wilderness." Soon the meaning of airline was too elevated for a railroad, no matter how straight its

tracks. Despite long tradition, the Seaboard finally dropped Air from its name well before the century was over

Early development of airlines in the U.S. Following World War I, the United States found itself swamped with aviators. Many decided to take their war-surplus aircraft on barnstorming campaigns, performing acrobatic maneuvers to woo crowds. In 1918, the United States Postal Service won the financial backing of Congress to begin experimenting with air mail service, initially using Curtiss Jenny aircraft that had been procured by the United States Army for reconnaissance missions on the Western Front. The Army was the first to fly these missions, but quickly lost the contract when they proved to be too unreliable. By the mid-1920s, the Postal Service had developed its own air mail network, based on a transcontinental backbone between New York, New York and San Francisco, California. To supplant this service, they offered twelve contracts for spur routes to independent bidders: the carriers that won these routes would, through time and mergers, evolve into Braniff Airlines, American Airlines, United Airlines (originally a division of Boeing), Trans World Airlines, Northwest Airlines, and Eastern Airlines, to name a few. Passenger service during the early 1920s was sporadic at best: most airlines at the time were focused on carrying bags of mail. In 1925, however, Ford Motor Company bought out the Stout Aircraft Company and began construction of the all-metal Ford Trimotor, the first successful American airliner. With a 12passenger capacity, it made passenger service potentially profitable. Air service was seen as a supplement to rail service in the American transportation network. At the same time, Juan Trippe began a crusade to create an air network that would link America to the world, and he achieved this goal through his airline, Pan American World Airways, with a fleet of flying boats that linked Los Angeles to Shanghai and Boston to London. Pan Am was the only U.S. airline to go international before the 1940s, and quickly became a symbol of the potential of the American airline industry. With the introduction of the Boeing 247 and Douglas DC-3 in the 1930s, the U.S. airline industry was generally profitable, even during the Great Depression. This trend continued until the beginning of World War II.

Early development of airlines in Europe The Imperial Airways Empire Terminal, Victoria, London. Trains ran from here to flying boats in Southampton, and to Croydon Airport. The first countries in Europe to embrace air transport were France, Germany and the Netherlands. In 1919 KLM was founded, still the oldest carrier operating under its original name. The first flight transported two English passengers to Schiphol, Amsterdam from London in 1920. Like other major European airlines of the time (see France and the UK below), KLM's early growth depended heavily on the needs to service links with far-flung colonial possessions (Dutch Indies). It is only after the loss of the Dutch Empire that KLM found itself based at a small country with few potential passengers, depending heavily on transfer traffic, and was one of the first to introduce the hub-system to facilitate easy connections. France began an air mail service to Morocco in 1919 that was bought out in 1927, renamed Aéropostale, and injected with capital to become a major international carrier. In 1933, Aéropostale went bankrupt, was nationalized and merged with several other airlines into what became Air France. The German airline industry began with Lufthansa in 1926, which, unlike most other airlines at the time, became a major investor in airlines outside of Europe, founding Varig and Avianca. German airliners built by Junkers, Dornier, and Fokker were the most advanced in the world at the time. The peak of German air travel came in the mid-1930s, when Nazi propaganda ministers approved the start of commercial zeppelin service: the big airships were a symbol of industrial might, but the fact that they used flammable hydrogen gas raised safety concerns that culminated with the Hindenburg disaster of 1937. United Kingdom's flag carrier during this period was Imperial Airways, which became BOAC (British Overseas Airlines Co.) in 1939. Imperial Airways used huge Handley-Page biplanes for routes between London, the Middle East, and India: images of Imperial aircraft in the middle of the Rub'al Khali, being maintained by Bedouins, are among the most famous pictures from the heyday of the British Empire.

History and overview of Biman Bangladesh Airlines Biman Bangladesh Airlines is an airline based in Dhaka, Bangladesh. It is the national airline and operates domestic services and international routes to Asia, Europe and the United States. Its main base is Zia International Airport, Dhaka.

Code data • • •

IATA Code: BG ICAO Code: BBC Callsign: Bangladesh

History Biman Bangladesh was established on 4 January 1972 and started operations in February 1972, when a Douglas DC-3 that had seen action in World War II was given to the company as a present by the Bangladesh Air Force. Soon after, a Boeing 707 and Fokker F27 Friendship aircraft joined the airline's fleet, allowing Biman to begin international flights. In 1983 Biman acquired Douglas DC-10 aircraft, and subsequently other planes such as the Airbus A310, Fokker F28 and British Aerospace BAe ATP. On January 31, 2003, the airline received 2 Boeing 737s. The airline is 100% owned by the Bangladesh government. However, the government is now planning to offer 40% of Biman to foreign airlines, with the intention that the buyer will assume management control of the carrier. A further 9% of the airline will go to employees.

Destinations Biman Bangladesh operates the following services (at January 2005): •

Domestic scheduled destinations: Barisal, Chittagong, Cox's Bazar, Dhaka, Jessore, Rajshahi and Sylhet.

•

International scheduled destinations: Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Bangkok, Brussels, Dammam, Delhi, Doha, Dubai, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Jeddah, Karachi, Kathmandu, Kolkata, Kuala Lumpur, Kuwait, London, Mumbai, Muscat, New York, Paris, Riyadh, Rome, Singapore, Tokyo and Yangon.

Fleet The Biman Bangladesh fleet consists of the following aircraft (at July 2005): • • •

4 Airbus A310-300 4 Fokker F28 Mk4000 5 Douglas DC-10-30

The airline has disposed of 2 Boeing 737-300. Previously they operated 2 BAe ATP aircraft.

Livery Dark green and red cheatlines on a white fuselage, with the name Biman Bangladesh written in green, in English on one side and Bengali on the other. The name is located across the front part of the fuselage. A Bangladesh flag is next to the name. The logo of a white bird flying inside an red circle is located at the tail, with dark green and red lines above and below the red circle.

Name The name Bangladesh Biman comes from the Bengali word Biman, meaning "airplane". The word Biman itself comes from the Sanskrit word vimāna, a name given to a type of flying machine mentioned in ancient Vedic literature.

Fleets of Biman Bangladesh Airlines Airbus A310-300

The Airbus A310 is a medium- to long-range wide-body airliner developed from the Airbus A300 and manufactured by Airbus SAS. Perhaps the greatest attribute of the A310 is that of range. The A310-300's range exceeds all A300 models and the -200 exceeds all A300 models in range except the A300-600. This quality has led to the aircraft being used extensively on transatlantic routes. The A300 and A310 introduced the concept of commonality which has become one of the Airbus family's greatest marketing points - A300600 and A310 pilots can qualify for the other aircraft with only one day of training.

Fokker F28 Mk4000 The Fokker F28 Fellowship is a short range jet airliner designed and built by the Dutch aircraft manufacturer Fokker. Announced by Fokker in April 1962, production was a collaboration between a number of European companies namely Fokker, MBB of Germany, Fokker-VFW of Germany and Short Brothers of United Kingdom. There was also government money invested in the project, with the Dutch government providing 50% of Fokker's stake and the German government had 60% of the 35% German stake. In terms of responsibility for production, Fokker design and built the nose section, centre fuselage and inner wing, MBB/Fokker-VFW constructed the forward fuselage, rear fuselage and tail assembly, Shorts designed and built the outer wings. Final assembly was at Schiphol Airport in Netherlands.

Douglas DC-10-30

The McDonnell Douglas DC-10 is a three-engined long-range airliner, with two engines mounted on underwing pylons and a third engine at the base of the vertical stabilizer. The model was a successor to the company's DC-8 for longrange operations, and competed in the same markets as the Airbus A300, Boeing 747 "jumbo jet", and the physically similar Lockheed L-1011 TriStar. Many were built for the U.S. Air Force as air-to-air refueling tankers, designated the KC-10 Extender.

Biman’s Current Scenario Biman is simply a 2 star ranked airline service, which actually denotes poor service. Here’s an international survey report by airlinequality.com and Skytrax Research. : BIMAN BANGLADESH AIRLINES ::

a Certified 2 Star Airline Home Base Airport Ranking = Zia International Airport SUMMARY RANKING Combined Quality of Product / Staff service in airport and onboard environments Business Class Economy Class Airport Services Check-In service - Business Class Check-In service - Economy Class Transfer Services - Business Class Transfer Services - Economy Class Arrival Services Business Class Lounge - product facilities Business Class Lounge - staff service Onboard Features Inflight entertainment may vary according to aircraft type Cabin Safety Procedures Inflight Entertainment Amenities, Blankets, Pillows, Towels etc Airline Magazine, Newspapers & other mags Cabin Seat Comfort Seating may vary according to aircraft type Business Class - long haul Business Class - regional

Economy Class - long haul Economy Class - regional Onboard Catering Business Class meals - long haul Business Class meals - regional Economy Class meals - long haul Economy Class meals - regional Cabin Staff Service Business Class - service efficiency Business Class - staff attitude & friendliness Economy Class - service efficiency Economy Class - staff attitude & friendliness Responding to Passenger requests Cabin presence through flights Assisting Parents with children Staff Language Skills

Departments of Biman Bangladesh Airlines It’s really very surprising that an organization like Biman which has more than 25000 employees working allover the nation, doesn’t have any Human Resource Department. But most of the Biman’s human resource activities are controlled by Administration and planning department. Other than that here are the departments of Biman Bangladesh Airlines;

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Administration Planning Finance Marketing and Sales Customer Service Operation  Flight Operation  Ground Operation 7. Store and Purchase 8. Engineering 9. Special Project

Here’s a quick overview of Departments of Biman Bangladesh Airlines; 1.

2.

Administration – Administration department’s job is to control all the operations and basically this department manages the HR activities of Biman Bangladesh Airlines. Planning – By the name it can be easily assumed that it involves all the planning functions. But too much

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

involvement of ministry and upper-class makes the scenario worst so that the department cannot work independently. Finance – Involves all the financial activities of Biman. It plans from where to manage money and how to distribute it among all the departments. Marketing and sales – Marketing and sales deal with the promotion, publicity, advertising and sales of Biman’s service and commodities. Customer Service – This is almost a lifeless department of Biman Bangladesh Airlines. Mainly this department’s job is to interact with its customers. Giving them information about the flight and responding their questions and queries. Operation – This is the most important and most problematic department of Biman. Activities and operations during the flight and both inside and outside the aircraft are managed by this department. a. Flight Operation – Pilots, Crews, Staffs b. Ground Operation – Traffics, Land Officers Store and purchase – This department basically purchases necessary goods that are needed for official and other purposes. Engineering – Another important but problematic department of Biman Bangladesh. This department is filled up with unskilled labors and also having lack of manpower. Special Project – Poultry, News service, Medical and other small departments are called Special Project in together.

Basic Problems of Biman Bangladesh Airlines Though Biman is going through thousands of problems right at this moment, but we will talk about only the basic problems that Biman is facing. And later on we’ll try to find out the possible solutions of these problems. Yet, these are the basic problems;

• • • • • • • • •

Insufficient number of aircrafts. Old aircrafts Too much change in schedule of flights. No HR department. Oil crisis Owings and unpaid loans. Improper utilization of manpower. Surplus of Manpower. Lack of Modern Technology • Improper Management system and inept administration. • Labor union • Corruption • Unethical use of power and Government involvement

Description of the problems And the basic problems that makes Biman a poor organization is described below;

Insufficient number of aircrafts - Being an international organization and having 43 branches worldwide Biman Bangladesh Airlines has only 13 aircrafts in its fleet. 4 Airbus A310-300, 4 Fokker F28 Mk4000 and 5 Douglas DC-10-30. and on which Biman is recently planning to cut off the DC10-30s from it’s fleet. Having more than 40 destinations worldwide and 7 domestic destinations, its really hard to operate and maintain the schedule with only 13 aircrafts. Whereas, most of the airline services in this world have more than 50 and some even have more than 100 aircrafts on their fleet. Old aircrafts - All of the aircrafts in Biman’s fleet are more than 30 years old. Fokker was used by warriors of World War II to carry foods and artillery. Douglas DC-10-30 is more than 30 years old Aircraft and it is too hard to maintain and its fuel cost is too high. Airbuses Biman is using are also old model aircrafts.

Too much change in schedule of flights - One small example can be given here to describe the problem. This is a real life comment by a customer in a website about Biman.

Biman Bangladesh - by Thierry de Borchgrave 10 December 2005 We tried to get to Bangkok with Biman Bangladesh, starting from Paris Orly. We should have left from Paris on Sunday, but the flight to Dhaka was cancelled. No announcement, no information, nothing. We managed to find a Biman representative who told us the flight would leave Monday morning. We could stay at a hotel close to the airport terminal, paid by Biman. We (and some more people that slept on the airport floor, because they did not find the well hidden Biman representative) left on Monday, but not straight to Dhaka. First to Rome to pick up some other passengers that got stuck there. Finally we took off to Dhaka and landed there in the middle of the night. Tickets and passports were taken and we could stay in a dirty hotel until the morning because the flight to Bangkok was leaving on Monday morning. The bus to the airport never picked us up. No flights to Bangkok on Monday ! You will fly tomorrow morning, we were told with a great smile. Finally we arrived in Bangkok Tuesday instead of Sunday. Return flight to Brussels via Dubai was okay, only three hours delay - first time and last time ever with Biman Bangladesh. Source: http://www.airlinequality.com/Forum/biman.htm And that says it all we guess.

No HR department - Another pathetic thing with Biman Bangladesh Airlines is it has no Human Resource department at all. It’s really shocking to hear that an organization in which over 25000 people are working has no

HR department. All of the HR activities are jointly done by Administration and Planning departments. Fuel Crisis – Uprising price of oil has also affected and always affecting Biman same as the general people. It’s really getting hard for Biman’s finance department to provide adequate supply of money for aircraft fuel. And on the other hand old aircrafts are burning up more fuels day after day. Owings and unpaid loans – Biman has a huge loan to pay with its interest which is stagnating Biman’s growth in comparing to the other airlines in this world. It is the error of finance department for which Biman is suffering for money at this moment. Improper utilization of manpower - This is the most pitiable situation that Biman is undergoing for last 34 years of its activity. For example; people who are graduated in Bengali are working as finance manager in Biman. In some jobs 50 people are employed where it needs only 30 and in some jobs 10 people are employed whereas it needs 200 people to complete the job properly.

Surplus of Manpower - This is another severe problem that Biman is going through. Right now Biman has about 25000 employees working allover the country and foreign branches. But these much manpower is not necessary to run operation of Biman Bangladesh Airlines.

Lack of Modern Technology - And also a big problem Biman is realizing as a problem is lack of modern technology allover Biman’s operation. Still Zia international Airport is using over 40 years old Radars and ground operation and flight operational materials. To maintain its database and other official information Biman still uses DOS based operating system which has high vulnerability and can crash anytime. Improper Management system and inept administration Biman’s management is not good enough to maintain this huge number of employees. Biman has got internal conflict between the employees, lack of motivation and spirit and all other things that is needed to make a bad working environment. Labor union - Labor unions and worker associations interrupt on any welfare activities, if there is any improvement or change in a job or sometimes without any reason. Some of the skilled managers even left the job being too much annoyed by the labor union. Corruption – Like all the government organizations in Bangladesh, Biman Bangladesh Airlines is also affected by the darkness of corruption.

Unethical use of power and Government involvement – And last but not the least, unethical use of power and too much government involvement is leading Biman to a valley of darkness from which it will be very hard to come back to the normal pace.

Possible Solutions to these problems: 1. 2.

Immediately buying new aircrafts. Replacing old and out of ordered aircrafts and hanger machineries from the base.

3. Government should provide Biman special discount on oil for a certain period till Biman overcomes the situation. 4. Asking for foreign aid or help and advice of Bangladesh Bank to overcome the situation and recruit skilled finance experts to deal with the situation. 5. Immediate opening of an HR department in Biman Bangladesh airlines in order to perfect maintenance of Human Resources to cope up the situation. 6. Putting right people in right place. 7. Modern Technologies should be introduced immediately and provide necessary on-duty and off-duty training for the new technologies. 8. Management system in all the departments should be changed in an urgent way and newly introduced HR department must be kept as the in charge of the planning and controlling process. And also a total quality management system needed to be released and watchdog system must be offered to ensure that. 9. To control the labor unions, HR department should get involved and trouble makers must be lay off from the organizations. 10.Corrupted officers should be recognized as soon as possible and they must be paneled under the law of Bangladesh government. 11. Government interference should be minimized and a portion of Biman’s share must be distributed amongst the public to make it a neutral and independently running organization. Possible solutions under basic HR functions Planning for organizations, Job and People – To improve the organization, organization’s needs must be fulfilled. The organization itself

needed to be systematically and thoroughly studied. Medium and small problems will also come out after the methodical study. And the problems should be resolved by understanding the job, dividing the job if necessary, improving and setting up a human resource planning for the organization. Acquiring Human Resources – Right people should be put into the right place in the organization. Bengali graduates should not be recruited into finance department anymore. Appropriate manner should be approved to find out the qualified and most skilled person in to the organization. Screening and selecting should be improved at a standard to find out the bright faces for Biman Bangladesh Airlines. Building Individual and Organizational Performance – To improve the performance, improve their skills and to brush up their knowledge training and redevelopment programs should be arranged on regular basis, whenever it sounds like they need training and need to improve. Depending on the job, on-duty, off-duty or any other type of training and development program should be offered. Biman has stopped foreign training programs for last 7 years for its higher cost. But to improve the employees’ performance, foreign training program should be reopened soon. Rewarding Employees – Rewarding and compensation system should be improved soon to attract new employees. It can also act as a motivation factor for old ones. Maintaining Human Resources – Performance cannot be improved only by providing good compensation, training and other motivational factors. Human resource should be well maintained in the organization since Biman has a very bad reputation as too many employees getting into a worker union. Multinational Human Resources – Multinational Part of Biman Bangladesh Airlines also need to be improved since there are too many branches of Biman working outside Bangladesh.

Conclusion

Being a national freight, which has the sole authority to carry the flag of Bangladesh, Biman’s reputation is conveying a notorious image of Bangladesh. Though Biman has plenty of possibility to provide highquality performance to its customers and to be a successful organization but today’s position of Biman is the liability of Bangladesh government and some corrupt officials. Though Biman’s problems are very much complicated and really difficult to cure and it’s not impossible yet. Biman’s problems are needed to be thoroughly studied and a team of Airline and HR experts must start working from now on to find out the real problems and each of the vulnerabilities of Biman. Bangladesh government should take proper action by giving some of its share to the public sector and replacing the corrupt and unqualified employees. A country’s image depends on many factors and an airline is also one of them. If a country’s national freight faces terrible situation and become unable to provide service then its nothing but a hilarious matter to others and its fact that example of Biman is given to the Bangladeshis who live outside this a country. Obviously it is a big insult for them. To retrieve our country’s image and make Biman a profitable organization it is urgent to apply HR functions and recruit and pay attention to the HR experts regarding Biman.

Bibliography

i. ii. iii. iv. v.

www.answers.com www.ask.com www.wikipedia.org www.bimanair.com www.airlinequality.com