Bangladesh’s air cargo industry is gearing up to reclaim markets lost and more, after a ban on the movement of air cargo from there was lifted.

Leading the charge is national carrier Biman Bangladesh, which lost out heavily because of the ban on cargo entering the UK. “It’s picking up with every flight,” one Biman official told Asia Cargo News.

Britain lifted its ban on cargo from Bangladesh on March 12, and Biman started cargo operations to London Heathrow two days later. Early figures are good and signal Bangladeshi confidence that the issue is behind them and the outlook is rosy.

“BG flights carried about 15-17 metric tons of cargo per flight from the first day of operation after the ban was lifted,” Mohd Arif Ullah, Biman’s acting general manager for cargo, told ACN in written responses.

“Currently, 500-650 metric tons of cargo are transported every day from HSIA. Last year, that was 500-550 metric tons,” Ullah said of the carrier’s new, healthier position. HSIA is Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, Dhaka’s – and, indeed, Bangladesh’s – airport gateway.

Outbound cargo is primarily made up of garments, while the inbound is finished pharma products, along with raw materials and telecoms. Biman is also shifting significant amounts of perishables daily, he added.

At the moment Biman and the Bangladesh air cargo industry is making the most of its new spirit of optimism, although it is aware the market could max out this year, in large part because of infrastructure.

Infrastructure – or more the lack of it – is also an issue to the front of the industry’s mind as Muammar Ahmad, finance director for the Bangladesh Freight Forwarders Association (BAFFA), told Asia Cargo News in an interview in Dhaka.

“It has crossed its capacity a long time back,” Ahmad said of HSIA, which is the country’s air cargo node. (There are airports at Sylhet and Chittagong, but Bangladesh’s development is not taking place there, so there is little or no cargo.)

It’s shaping up to be a stubborn problem. As Bangladesh starts to develop, the next wave of exports is likely to be electronics rather than textiles, and airports will be playing catch-up with a target moving at a decent rate.

Currently, Japanese money is being used to help expand HSIA, but it will be some years before new facilities, including a cargo terminal of 41,200 square metres, according to published sources, are ready to ease the sector’s current constraints.

A number of logistics supports, such as escorted vehicles, tow tractors and more manpower, are essential for smooth cargo operation, said Ullah of Dhaka’s airport at the moment.

This is part of a broader problem in Bangladesh, a poor-but-developing country which lacks modern warehousing, logistics support and skilled manpower as well as freighter service and dedicated cargo personnel, he added.

That said, Biman is aiming high, and hopes to reach further still in part because of the new planes in its fleet. It will take two Boeing 787 Dreamliners this year and two next and is considering adding cargo-rich destinations such as Guangzhou, Colombo, Male, Delhi, Hong Kong, New York, Manchester, Rome and Medina.

The bans by Britain, Australia and the European Union stopped cargo coming directly to those places from Bangladesh, citing worries about security at facilities at HSIA. This required third-country screening, which deterred volumes and bumped up costs.

“Due to the UK cargo ban, we could not tap the potential of the cargo market fully,” said Biman chairman Muhammad Enamul Bari, while presenting the company’s report for the 2016/17 financial year, which ran from July 1 to June 30. “The airline carried 33,556 tons of cargo in the period under review, which is 25.41% lower than that of the past fiscal year.”

Bari cited the ban along with fierce competition from low-cost carriers as the factors which weakened Biman’s profits.

While Britain recently wrapped up its ban on direct cargo flights, other countries, among them Australia, still require third-country screening, an inconvenience BAFFA wants to end.

“That has caused extra” inconvenience, BAFFA’s Ahmad told Asia Cargo News in Dhaka.

“We would like the Australians to work with us directly,” Ahmad said. “They come to suggest how we can improve. We want others to come and check,” Ahmad said.

By Michael Mackey

Southeast Asia Correspondent | Dhaka