The cabinet yesterday rejected civil aviation ministry's plea for raising Hajj flight fares.

Official sources confirmed following yesterday's cabinet decision that unlike the past years, neither the civil aviation ministry nor the religious affairs ministry would take any responsibility to bargain for a fair ticket price for non-ballotee Hajjis.

Following weeks of meetings with both the representatives of foreign and private airliners, the civil aviation ministry got quotations of $1250 per passenger as the lowest plane fare from two private airlines, South Asian Airlines and Air Bangladesh, and quotations of $1350 from five foreign airlines Emirates, Gulf, Saudi Arabian Airlines, Qatar Airways and Singapore Airlines.

In a last-minute supplementary agenda the civil aviation ministry on Monday last incorporated a proposal of hiking the previously set Hajj flight fare of $950 to $1250 so that Biman does not have to count losses and also to make it easier for the other airlines to agree to fly thousands of prospective pilgrims.

The cabinet on August 15 fixed Hajj flight fare at $950 that equals last year's fare amidst utmost displeasure from loss-incurring Biman and the civil aviation ministry, who blamed the government for paying no heed to price hike of jet fuel from only 26 cents a litre in 2004 to 56 cents a litre this year.

But the cabinet meeting, held at the Prime Minister's Office with the premier in the chair, yesterday rejected the proposal for a fare hike and told the ministry concerned that the government would provide subsidies to Biman had any loss incurred.

However, the issue of obtaining a good bargain in Hajj flight fares with other airlines for the overwhelming numbers of non-ballotee Hajjis is left with the pilgrims themselves.

Under the circumstances, many will not be able to perform Hajj in January, 2006 due to the high airfare. The foreign airlines that will operate their scheduled flights on Dhaka-Jeddah route will charge according to their own fixed rates, said aviation sources.

Till last year Biman and Saudi Arabian Airlines used to split the load in flying the Hajjis from Bangladesh at the fare the cabinet used to fix. But with dwindling fleet size of Biman, the crunched national flag carrier expressed its inability to fly any more than 4,000 pilgrims this year comparing to over 23,000 it flew last year. Saudi Arabian Airlines also declined to fly pilgrims from Bangladesh at such a low fare of $950.

Apparently upset at yesterday's decision not to hike the fare, State Minister for Civil Aviation and Tourism Mir Mohammad Nasir Uddin did not take any question from the media regarding the looming crisis in flying the pilgrims.

Nasir told The Daily Star earlier that if needed, as a last resort, he would suspend Biman's flights on other international routes including the loss-incurring Dhaka-New York one.

State Minister for Religious Affairs Mosharraf Hossain Shahjahan told BBC radio last night that non-ballotee pilgrims would have to bargain on plane fares on their own through their travel agents and the government would not take their responsibility.

Asked whether Biman would operate extra flights beyond its scheduled Dhaka-Jeddah flights for flying the pilgrims, Biman's acting Managing Director Mahmudur Rahman told this correspondent last night, "We'll wait for the civil aviation ministry's directives."