Following bans imposed by Australia and Britain on air cargo from Bangladesh, citing security arrangements, Germany’s civil aviation authorities have now reportedly banned direct cargo flights from Bangladesh due to the same reasons, which means any cargo flights from Bangladesh to Germany must be rescreened at a third-country airport. German airline Lufthansa in a recent letter informed Biman Bangladesh, which handles cargo operation at Dhaka airport, its decision to bar flying cargo directly from Bangladesh.
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“I cannot comment on this cargo problem because I have not yet seen the letter of our Federal Aviation Authority. But I know that there is already a delegation from Lufthansa cargo in town to look into the matter and to find solution for that,” reportedly maintained Germany’s Ambassador Thomas Prinz to newsmen after a meeting with Bangladesh Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith recently, underlining that the ban needs an early solution.
However, Civil Aviation Minister Rashed Khan Menon reportedly refused to see Germany’s decision as prohibition. “They’ve presented some conditions and requested that we follow international standards,” adding, “Germany’s aviation body has claimed that their intelligence data indicates that bringing in cargo from Bangladesh is risky. But our Foreign Ministry, Civil Aviation Ministry and authorities have not been informed about it.”
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The German Ambassador nevertheless underlined that the embargo would not have much of an impact on garment exports from Bangladesh. “I don’t think that will affect RMG export because major part of the RMG goes through Chittagong harbour to Europe by ship, not by air,” said Prinz, adding, “Anyway this is a problem, we have to solve very soon.”
It may be mentioned here that in the backdrop of the embargos put by UK and Australia, the Bangladesh Government has tightened the security scenario at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (Dhaka) and also earned EU Aviation security validated Regulated Agent (RA3) certificate.
