UK restores Bangladesh cargo link, with caveats

The UK Department of Transport (DoT) will allow direct cargo flights to resume between Bangladesh and the UK, after security improvements at Dhaka airport. London halted cargo services from the Asian nation in March 2016 after concerns were raised over standards of security at Dhaka’s Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport. The concerns are believed to have included inadequate management oversight and ease of access to cargo facilities. Bangladesh Biman, the national carrier, was the sole airline that handled direct cargo flights to the UK. The Bangladeshi government appointed a UK company, Redline Assured Security, to examine arrangements at Hazrat Shahjalal; the company said it had assisted “through changing the poor security culture that had resulted in their air cargo being deemed unsafe.” The lifting of the ban was made this week in a brief statement from the DoT. However, although the overall ban has been lifted, a DoT spokeswoman confirmed that Bangladeshi carriers would still have to have their cargo operations validated by the UK or EU before they could carry cargo to the UK or the EU again.<br/>