News / Forwarder anger as scanner malfunctions hit Bangladesh air exports again

Boxes pile up at during previous congestion at Dhaka airport Credit: Syed Md Bakhtiar

Air cargo flows through Bangladesh’s Dhaka Airport are again facing severe challenges, due to the malfunction of explosive-detection scanners (EDSs).

Only one of the airport’s EDS machines is working, as air cargo demand and rates out of the country have significantly increased this year.

“It is utterly impossible to meet the requirements of freight forwarders with only one operational EDS,” Kabir Ahmed, president, Bangladesh Freight Forwarders Association (BAFFA), wrote to the civil aviation authority yesterday.

Outbound cargo is being stockpiled inside cargo villages, according to forwarders.

Mr Ahmed said that, of the four EDSs at Dhaka Airport, one had been out of order for a long period, and during the past three weeks two more stopped working.

He said this was adding to freighter forwarders’ woes, along with Dhaka’s higher rates than other airports in the region, limited capacity and delays.

BFFA director Nasir Ahmed Khan told The Loadstar that, in recent months, air exports through Dhaka had increased several-fold, freight rates had doubled and, in some cases, even tripled, to the main destinations for Bangladeshi garment exports.

Spot rates out of Bangladesh to Europe were up 29%, month on month, in mid-March, according to Xeneta, with strong demand for apparel. Rates to the US were up 10%.

Xeneta added: “Looking at the general cargo market at a country level, India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka experienced significant increases in their general cargo spot rates, which rose by a considerable 81%, 40% and 55% respectively, in the week ending 3 March, compared with four weeks earlier, driven by strong demand for apparel products from these markets.”

Rates have also risen in the region owing to the container shipping disruption in the Red Sea.

In December, some 10,410 tonnes of cargo went through Dhaka Airport, which increased to 14,451 tonnes in January (+39%), some 18,700 tonnes in February (+29%), and 19,127 tonnes in March (+2%).

However, the EDS malfunctions were now seriously disrupting shipments, said Mr Khan, adding that there were other equipment shortages as well, including the crates that carry boxes to aircraft.

“When EDSs does not work, we depend on explosive-detection dogs, which cannot conduct security checks fast,” he said.

Dhaka Airport has been regularly plagued by problems with its scanning machines. They failed in September 2020, September 2021 and March 2022, and can take months to repair.