The religious affairs ministry estimates that 4,000 ballotee (under government management) and over 50,000 non-ballotee pilgrims are willing to perform Hajj in January next year. But Biman says it will not be able to fly more than 4,000 pilgrims to Saudi Arabia due to shortage of aircraft.

The national flag carrier has to go by the cabinet-approved fare of $ 950 per pilgrim although it will incur a loss of Tk 20 crore from the Hajj flights this time. But other private and foreign airlines, at two meetings with the civil aviation ministry on October 23 and 24, made it clear they would not bear losses by operating Hajj flights at such a poor fare rate.

State Minister for Civil Aviation and Tourism Mir Mohammad Nasir Uddin told The Daily Star recently that low fare would cause Biman a loss of Tk 71 lakh per Hajj flight this time.

Last year, Biman ferried over 23,000 Hajj pilgrims to Saudi Arabia at a fare of $950 each and incurred a loss of Tk 21 crore. But Biman fears it would suffer almost the same amount of losses this time by carrying only 4,000 pilgrims as jet fuel price rose sharply over the last one year.

Biman is not happy at the cabinet decision of not increasing the fare for Hajj flights while other traditional Hajj flight operators have declined to accept the proposed low fare, and quoted fares as high as $1,360, sources pointed out.

"I am now offering them (foreign scheduled airlines) Biman's slots for carrying pilgrims from Bangladesh at as low fare as they can," Mir Nasir said.

Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, now in Saudi Arabia to perform Umrah, would be apprised of the latest stalemate over Hajj flights on her return home, officials said.

At his first meeting with the foreign and private airlines on October 23, the state minister asked them to submit their Hajj flight fare quotations to the civil aviation ministry by October 27. But the very next day, he had another round of talks with 10 foreign airlines and extended the time limit by three days.

Both the religious affairs ministry and the civil aviation ministry now wait to see the lowest fare offers and flight capacities of these foreign airlines -- Gulf Air, Qatar Airways, Kuwait Airways, Pakistan International Airlines, Yemen Air, Singapore Airlines, Malaysian Airlines, British Airways, Saudi Arabian Airlines and Thai Airways.

Officials hope a few of the 10 airlines will submit their fare quotations by today and an eight-member committee headed by the civil aviation secretary will then scrutinise the quotations and prepare a report.

The state minister for civil aviation and tourism is scheduled to meet the representatives of the foreign airliners at his office tomorrow (Monday) to decide next steps.

If the quoted fare rates are higher than that of Biman ($ 950 per pilgrim), a cabinet decision would be required to allow the civil aviation ministry give a 'go-ahead' to the foreign airlines.

Meanwhile, various platforms of intending Hajj pilgrims have urged the government not to enhance airfare of non-ballotee pilgrims.

Some of them also alleged that although the government has fixed airfare of all pilgrims at $ 950, a vested quarter in the national airlines is trying to increase fare by $ 410 on the plea of aircraft shortage and price hike of jet fuel just for their personal gains.