NOT EVERYONE CAN FLY

10,000 is the amount you have to spend to make a return trip to Chittagong.

14,000 for  Cox's Bazaar. Yet it took me not a paisa more than

9,000 to make a return trip to Kuala Lumpur. Ask me how?

To answer this question, we have to turn to the magnificent 70's. When despite the Cold War's Russian roulette, a gentleman called Freddie Laker coined the infamous "Sky Train" service between London and New York. Laker Airways, which eventually failed... had started an era in air travel which would shape a large portion of what we see as the "airline industry" today. Low-cost aka. budget aka. no-frills airlines, are in simple words, airlines that sell tickets at considerably lower fares. Although too simple to address, this cost-saving is actually achieved though a very streamlined, effective and no-bullshit model. Over the years, airline behemoths like Southwest in 70's, Ryanair in 80's, Easyjet in 90's and last but not least Air Asia in 00's have started out with this no-frills model, sustained the global downturns and have survived to be winners at the end. In fact Southwest today is one of the largest airlines in the world, and also one that sustained the least (-) growth during the post-9/11 recession. I wonder why?

I am not a widely travelled person as many of you who are reading this could and would be. But I do know a bit of history and adding to that a few jargon from the business school, a few years learning the consumer traits... I do at time get an insight or two, right. Today's dissection will not be about the low-cost air travel model, that's for the travel gurus and airline pundits to solve. But what I want to bring to light, is the successful and almost unimaginable revival of a dead-concept in the hands of a magician, who goes by the name of Tony Fernandez. Unless you haven't figured it out yet (gosh! this article is so not for you, then)... I am talking about the latest and the bestest airline that flies to Dhaka, Air Asia...

1 Ringgit (Tk. 23) is how much he paid for taking over an ailing low-cost carrier by the name of Air Asia.  Although the token money was nothing more than a formality, he took over the debts of a dying airline with nothing but his exceptional management skills and a trusted bunch of investors (through Tune Group). He gave up his career as a Regional Boss at Warner Music, invested his life's savings into this unknown Tune Group and left the rest to his proven track record of turning things around. And this was all in 2001...

As 2002 drew the dawn of a new day in his own life and the life of his newest venture, Air Asia... It was nothing short of miraculous, when the airline posted profits within a year of its takeover. Some say marriages are made in heaven, acquisitions in hell; but this acquisition was simply too good to be true. And after nearly 10 years of doing business by selling a single class of seats, in a single type of aircraft (initially Boeing 737 and now Airbus A320), with no on-board meals, no refunds and exceptional turnaround times... Air Asia proudly boasts a fleet of 103 aircrafts (with 121 in orders) flying to over 60 destinations around the globe.

Their model was pretty straight-cut to begin with - keep journey times less than 4hrs , which enables them to have seats that don't recline, serve no complimentary meals and of course charge for everything from a reserved seat to extra baggage (well as opposed to a general airline, Air Asia offers 15kg of baggage per head) to even having some extra leg room (yes, they call it HOT SEAT :p). The aircrafts are maintained by some really efficient crew who have a turnaround time that can compete with a Formula 1 pit-stop any day (no wonder, Air Asia sponsors Scuderia Ferrari) and because they are all of a single type, having spare parts in dire times is never a worry anyway.

Ironically even after the arrival of this messiah (who has literally let everyone fly), the local scene hasn't changed much till today. United still flies return trips to Chittagong for no less than 11,000 and with almost equally shitty seats, they charge 24000 to KL as opposed to Air Asia's meager 17000 (at max on a peak period). Air Asia lets you pre-book tickets... not just any advance, but literally years in advance... Whereas for a traditional career out of Dhaka, web ticketing is a hieroglyphic and advance ticketing a myth. In the past decade, Bangladesh has seen the rise of a few private carriers (namely GMG, United and most recently Regent), demise of some other private carriers (Royal Bengal, Parabat, Best) and the continued disgrace of the flag carrier (Biman).

When the whole world is busy benchmarking them against the low-cost operators, Bangladeshi airlines' are busy fighting their own battle... staying in the green to stay in flight! Albeit we have one of the most discouraging air travel frameworks in Bangladesh - high cost of aviation fuel, non-competitive airport charges and subsidized flag carrier; the opportunities were always there. The moment Bangladesh government opened our skies for a short duration in 2007, airlines like Air Asia jumped into this opportunity. Foreseeing the ever-increasing spending habits of the growing middle-class and a lifelong "wanderlust" nature of us, Bangladeshis... Air Asia did what local airlines couldn't do in ages (probably could never have done, either).

They brought down flying to a "reasonable level"!!! By reasonable, I don't refer to the (throw away price) TkTk. 17,0000 I will be paying to fly off to KL once more in a few days via Air Asia. These folks from Malaysia, have not only made air travel an affordable mean of getting around (well ironically, only to KL and onwards for now) but also introduced us to a concept unseen, unheard and untried.

End of the day, all that we have learnt and tried to achieve is nothing but follow their suit by lowering airfares (when promotional fares meant 1 Ringgit for a KL-SG flight, we replicated it as 10-15% off on an already overpriced ticket of DHK-BKK flight), sticking to Cold War-era gas-guzzler aircraft (the De Havilland Dash 8s and even older MD-80s are nothing short of 10 to 20 years old as they are bought) and eventually getting themselves F*CKED (bankrupt) in the process (case in reference, GMG).

People say, men in the army have their brains in their knees; strangely it seems... so do the pilots and aviation aristocracies!!!

And thus we remorsefully realize... NOT EVERYONE CAN FLY!!!

AirAsia: The Business Maestro

Anyone out there who doesn’t know about AirAsia? I will be surprised!! If you are a traveler continuously updating yourself with packages offered by various different travel agencies, than all such travel enthusiasts at least for once visited AirAsia website and checked out there offers. And once checked, the entire community started looking for international credit cards just to grab one ticket to Malaysia and why not, when a 370 USD air fare is discounted to 123 USD, even those who never thought of travelling to Malaysia will jump for a move.



Now the big Q, by offering such a low rate, how does AirAsia manage their business? Here are few strategies worth pondering.

1. AirAsia sold tickets for entire one year within 2 weeks.
2. They will earn interest. A ticket sold in February scheduled for November, earns them interest for 9 months. This is additional buck to the pockets.
3. Not only air tickets, they also had cheap hotels to offer. So not only a buyer bought the air tickets, also booked hotels through AirAsia.
4. To add more, you also had cheap offers to other regions. So now a buyer bought air tickets not only for Kuala Lumpur (KL), but from KL to Langkawi.
5. And guess what, who wants to travel alone. So a buyer influenced his/her friends to tag in along as well. So one interested person ended up influencing few more.
6. Did you notice that rates where higher especially on weekends. So AirAsia had a slot, different rates on different days as per demand. Maybe a buyer hoped he/she will be able to buy return tickets for 123 USD, but on his/her chosen day, the total price was 170 USD. Still, why miss the chance just for 3,500 Taka only, the offer still is very cheap. So many such buyers paid little more than the cheapest offer.
7. Other additional services also had a price, like choosing your seat, price for luggage, and bus tickets to the City Central. All these ads up another 20-30 USD.

So just one buyer seeing one discounted offer ended up providing the followings to AirAsia:-
1. Buying return Tickets to KL, either at the cheapest rate or higher.
2. Buying return tickets from KL to other regions (Langkawi).
3. Booking and paying for hotels.
4. Buying additional services
5. And most importantly, influenced others to buy and thus acting as a sales person.

Now the reality, exactly how many people who bought a ticket in February scheduled to travel in November will actually be able to make it? There is a very high chance that many will not make it, and sad but true, if you want to re-schedule your flight, than you almost end up paying a fee equal to your original ticket price. So a customer who misses his flight either ends up paying another 150+ USD to reschedule the flight, or misses the flight completely, no refund by the way. Many such buyers will actually not make it which in return reduces Air weight saving AirAsia’s fuel cost and leaving paid hotel rooms empty which can be resold.

So all in all, many sources of income for AirAsia which makes up for their reduced ticket price. If you are a Bangladeshi businessman having big dreams, why not learn the all round the year discount concept, you not only generate entire one year sales in a week time, you also make your buyers sale for you. In current recession period, discount stores are bound to hit big in the market. Just go grab it.

Mahboob Hossain

Mahboob Hossain is working in World’s number one Market research company and is actively involved in writing, teaching and business counseling.

Flying high with our khaslots

Couple of weeks ago I went out of the country. After an agonizing 8-hour delayed flight by GMG, I reached the hotel all exhausted and worn out. Eager to settle down and freshen up, as soon as I reached my room I opened up my luggage and voila! To my shock and irritation, there popped up a deshi-mosha...yes I realized that I have successfully exported inside my luggage a Bangladeshi branded mosquito to a foreign land. Some become very cautious practitioners of health and hygiene when abroad, perhaps due to changed, improved surroundings and I was no exception. I overcame my fatigue instantly and started hankering after the possible dengue-carrier with clapped attempts to eliminate it once and for all....in order to achieve a good night's sleep. However my manual efforts went down the drain which consequently compelled me to ask for professional help which arrived in 5 minutes and sprayed the 'terror threat' to solemn rest...much to my relief.


Very much like the dengue-carrier deshi mosha which was made history on foreign soil by me, I wish I could eliminate some baaje khaslots of our deshi-air carriers when they travel to and from foreign soil. Its a pity that much like the way I was only able to clap or spray the mosquito to death, my efforts to change the khaslots of our airlines are limited to complaining to their staff and ofcourse to writing this post only. On that particular date, the flight was supposed to take off at 0940 hours. I woke up early in the morning to report at ZIA 2 hours before the ETD only to discover that GMG will be flying 4 hours late at 1340! Thanks they atleast stuck some hurriedly prepared printouts at the check-in counters. I started my first ever wait for a flight in a deshi airport. Much like sleeping in a bench in a park, I experienced sleeping in orange-colored seats at ZIA, thanks to GMG and thanks to BanglaLink too, for letting me sleep in ZIA. The security checks were done around 1300 hours when we were informed by a nervous GMG staff that the flight will now be at 1430 hours! Without giving any opportunity for crowd furore, he disappeared in no time. Yet again, I witnessed how patient my countrymates are, they atleast know how to behave in an airport. They held on to their nerves and kept their frustrations within themselves, consoling each other that there is no point in complaining...and above all..who to complain to? Rather just wait and hope for the best......much like we behave regarding our rotten politics too. Finally to put an end to our patience and gentlemen(women)ship, the airship landed, we got on board, got greeted by worn out air hostesses and placed ourselves in the respective seats only to realize that we are now from pan to fire. The interior of the aircraft was boiling hot and the crew informed us that when on ground, it will be hot, when in air, it will be cold....we were amazed with the simple clarification and thought ourselves to be silly to have asked for silly services. I also never got the chance to actually settle when I discovered that my tray was broken and there was a fossil of a cockroach trapped in the window too! Yet another day for a passenger in a Bangladeshi airline huh?


Biman has taken its B(e)imanis to such an extent that its always a good idea to have a Jibon Bima before flying with Biman. So came GMG as a savior of our air travel experience. They too, seem to have adopted the khaslots of Biman very meticulously. After Biman, GMG added its name in the race of flight delays, horrible service and its a dream of every ATC not to see the names of these airlines in their charts. Interestingly, GMG has also started following the mantra of 'ektu to late hobei'...and they have successfully started convincing passengers and counterparts alike that its natural and normal for a Bangladeshi airliner to be late...and its OK if the service is not what they promised....because...who cares...we are used to it anyways! Biman's failure gave a chance to GMG to prove its promises, they could not. Monopoly got into their head and we are held captive now. Voila came United Airways and we all are rushing to it now...only time will tell when United Airways will pick up the khaslots of Biman and GMG and will make our flying experiences forgettable and dangerous and unhygienic too.


The Bangla word for habit is obbhash....but khaslot is such a slang that has a rare synonym in English, if it does please share it here. The point is that, our airliners have sacrificed their good habits (bhalo obbhash) long ago and they have picked up NOT the bad habits exactly but some khaslots which are irritating, troublesome and uncurable in a peculiar manner. They kinda stink, stare and sting you in a way much like the deshi-mosha which was doing the same to me. I achieved to wipe the mosha off, but our airlines keep flying high with their khaslots.....happily intact.

Fly Your Own Airways

Bangladesh's second private passenger airline will begin domestic operations next month in a fast growing market boosted by the scrapping of flights by the state-run airline (Biman).
United Airways will start flying to southeastern Chittagong and northeastern Sylhet from the capital Dhaka in the third week of June, company director Ferdous Alam said.
The company, owned by expatriate Bangladeshis living in Britain, had bought a Dash-8 aircraft and would add another Dash-8 in late June followed by two more Fokker 100 by August, he added. "We will initailly fly to domestic destinations. But our main target is to fly to southern cities of China and the Gulf. Bangladeshi air traffic to these destinations has increased tremendously recently," he added. China pipped India as Bangladesh's main import destination in 2005 while nearly three million Bangladeshis now work and live in the Gulf countries of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman. United Airways will be the second Bangladeshi private passenger airline. Presently GMG is the sole private operator, which flies to domestic and regional destinations in south Asia. In March, a Kuwait-based Aqeeq Aviation Holding bought a 70 per cent stake in the leading air-cargo operator Best Aviation to launch a passenger airline by July this year. Alam said the market was attractive to private operators since the scrapping of a number of flights by the state-run Biman Bangladesh Airlines. State airline, Bangladesh Biman Airlines, dominates domestic routes with a 54 percent market shares followed by GMG, with the remaining 46 percent share. All set for a happening aviation sector it seems. With more money in middle class's pocket, they will be willing to fly, throwing heads on competition to GMG and bus operators. All we need is service with a smile, punctuality and safety, areas where Biman has done a great 'Beimani'.

United We Fly

The Bangladeshi aviation sector is all abuzz with the arrival of the new entrant United Airways, who published their vacancy announcements today. The private sector aviation domain has been long led and well maintained by GMG Airlines who have extended their network up to Bangkok, Delhi, Kolkata and Kathmandu. Personally speaking, I found GMG's service just fine and the staff friendly. Given that the country is pretty small in size, railway service at its worst ever, the airliners need to compete with landroute operators only i.e. buses. Still I believe there is a sizeable number of 'middle-upper middle-upper' class flyers who prefer to fly to their destinations rather than going by road, thanks to increasing buying powers. Now lets see how United Airways perform in the market.