Tk21,000 tickets sold for Tk240,000 by manipulation

A vested quarter has been involved in large-scale embezzlement through 'overbooking' manipulation of Biman Bangladesh air ticket sales for almost a year and a half. The ring has compelled a large number of Kuala Lampur-bound passengers to purchase Tk21,000 tickets for Tk2,40,000 in May. The scam involving high-ranking officials of Biman Bangladesh Airlines and travel agencies affected thousands of workers scheduled to fly to Malaysia.

Biman Bangladesh's internal inspection and View Bangladesh's investigation revealed this information. Documents obtained by Views Bangladesh confirmed the involvement of 10 Biman officials while 14 travel agencies played a crucial role in the scam.

The report also provided the details of specific types of fraud committed by the accused officials. However, the report did not name the travel agencies involved in the manipulation, nor did it mention how they were connected to the officials.

According to the announcement of the Malaysian government, May 31 was fixed as the deadline for the new Kuala Lumpur-bound Bangladeshi workers. According to the investigation report of Biman Bangladesh Airlines, the syndicate embezzled a large amount of money through fraudulent air ticket sales ahead of the deadline.

Officials of several travel agencies told View Bangladesh that during the month of April-May of this year, the Tk 20,475 ticket on the Dhaka-Kuala Lumpur route was sold up to Tk2,40,000.

At the same time, tickets from two or three other airlines, including Malaysian Airlines, were sold up to Tk400,000.

Of the workers, many went to Kuala Lumpur en route to Singapore, Bangkok, and Delhi. Meanwhile, several others took transit through Dubai, Sharjah, or Doha. According to the investigation report, 20-30 seats were left empty on the daily flights of Biman Bangladesh Airlines even during the extreme demand for tickets.

As per the sources in the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism, a three-member investigation committee was formed on June 3 when the news of the sale of air tickets on the Dhaka-Kuala Lumpur route at unusual prices was published in multiple news outlets.

Biman Bangladesh conducted another probe into the ticket fraud on several routes in 2023. The internal investigation report was handed over to the minisconcerned on February 12 this year. As no action was taken against the accused officials, they once again got involved in ticket fraud on the Dhaka-Kuala Lumpur route.

Information on irregularities
According to the report, Biman operated seven flights from Dhaka to Kuala Lumpur between May 27 and May 30. Of these, five flights were classified as special while the booking information of the other two was removed by the syndicate. As many as 1,146 of the 2,150 available seats were manually overbooked. This allowed select travel agencies to sell these seats at exorbitant prices, well above the airline’s official rates.

How the manipulation was done
Biman's investigation report stated that the accused officials of Biman were responsible for managing seat numbers and ticket sales on various routes. As part of this responsibility, they could manually book or overbook tickets for various flights.

As per the existing SOP (Standard of Procedure), these officers would not have required prior permission from their superiors. With this opportunity, they have been overbooking the tickets for various routes of Biman for a long time.

Investigation showed that the number of seats used in a flight on the Dhaka-Kuala Lumpur route was 419. Out of this, 35 are business class and 384 are economy class. The accused officials have 'nested' all 419 seats open for sale.

The nesting technique is to include another code block within a code block. Thus, the accused officials showed all the ticket bookings using the new code block within the prescribed code block for each seat. Overbooking of tickets has been shown in many cases.

According to the investigation report, from December 16, 2022, to January 1, 2023, an in-charge Assistant Manager (Commercial) used his code to increase or decrease the number of seats on Biman's Dhaka-Kuala Lumpur route six times by nesting. At that time, the aircraft used in a flight had 354 economy seats. The assistant manager 'overbooked' the seats by showing once 384 seats, 389, and lastly 392 seats.

Those officials used to show overbooking and present the information that all the tickets of a particular flight had been sold before the passengers who came to buy the tickets. Some brokers hired by the officials would then advise the passengers to go to the travel agencies associated with them.

Brokers also used social media platforms to advise passengers to approach several travel agencies for tickets. Passengers were charged extra for tickets when they went there.

The investigation report said that the ticket prices increased two to three times. Officials of several travel agencies and victimized passengers told Views Bangladesh that certain travel agencies charged the passengers Tk50,000 to Tk150,000 for Tk21,000 tickets. In May, the last economy class ticket on the Dhaka-Kuala Lampur route was sold at Tk240,000.

Contacted many passengers said that they had no idea about the office addresses of those agencies. They even couldn't make any direct communication with anyone from those agencies. All ticket purchase procedures were made by the brokers and the tickets were handed over through a cash delivery system.

According to a related source, the agencies involved in the irregularities are shadow ones. The accused officials of Biman used to open those agencies using the names of their ring members with fake documents. These persons used to sell the tickets in the black market at exorbitant prices and the accused officials of Biman used to confirm the tickets. As a result, no one would ever know the name of the accused agency. For the same reason, their names did not appear in the investigation report.

Empty seats during departure
The investigation report also said that there was an overbooking of tickets on the Dhaka-Kuala Lumpur route every day during last April-May. However, in early May, some flights were found to have empty seats. During this time, the business class seats were usually empty when the flights took off. Some economy class seats were also empty. Due to unusual ticket prices, some tickets couldn’t be sold even in the black market while black marketers did not sell business class tickets separately as the economy class tickets were sold at two to ten times the price. As a result, the black marketers benefited while the airline incurred the loss.

What the accused say
The probe body recorded the statements of the 10 accused officials separately. Each of the accused either said he or she did not remember the 'overbooking issue' or they overbooked the tickets for a special reason under the rule.

The report specifically mentions the name of Mohammad Salahuddin (now retired), the former general manager of Biman's marketing and sales department. He was in charge of the marketing and sales department at that time. During that time some officials were accused of 'overbooking' manipulation but no action was taken against them and no complaints were taken into consideration. Travel agencies involved in fraud were identified as well but no action was taken against them. Rather, despite being a team leader, he supported irregularities and mismanagement and overbooked or manually confirmed bookings on most flights based on verbal instructions without leaving any written evidence.

When attention was drawn to the investigation report, Mohammad Salahuddin, former general manager (marketing and sales department), told Views Bangladesh: "I am not aware of any such investigation."

He said that even though he retired, the inquiry committee should have contacted him directly taken his statement, and included that statement in the investigation. But the investigation committee did not do that. As a result, he is not aware of the investigation process. So, he cannot make any comment on the investigation report.