The national aviation watchdog cannot perform properly in terms of service delivery and regulatory function for having dual responsibility, experts said.
It is unable to act both as a regulator and a service provider, thus failing to deliver good service at airports year after year.
Despite recommendations from international regulators and finance ministry regarding separation of its dual authority, the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) has showed utter reluctance to do so.
Successive boards of the CAAB, headed by the chairmen, looked indifferent to the issue of transferring its responsibility of airport management for ensuring better services to passengers.
It is a normal practice in other countries, including South Asian nations, to have an independent entity tasked with operation and oversight of an airport or a group of airports.
A finance ministry letter in 2016 recommended that it is necessary to form separate authorities by dividing the regulatory and service providing functions of CAAB at various airports so that the airports can function as independent bodies, ministry sources said.
Industry insiders and aviation experts point an accusing finger at the CAAB high-ups for not doing so just to grip power and control the airports.
When contacted, CAAB chairman Air Vice-marshal M Naim Hassan seriously reacted to the allegations regarding his unwillingness to submit a proposal to separate the two authorities to the ministry for approval.
The separation of the airport service provider from the CAAB is a long-standing demand of the stakeholders.
"We don't have that kind of manpower, infrastructure and mentality along with other factors to separate the two authorities," he told the FE.
"There can be two departments under the CAAB or the airport service management authority can be outsourced," Mr Hassan said.
But no congenial situation prevails in Bangladesh for outsourcing as security is a big concern here.
"It is not an easy task," said the CAAB chief.
But airline operators and aviation experts consider these logics as lame excuses to avoid handover of power to others.
"A complex situation prevails in our country due to centralisation of everything that impedes formulation of a modern aviation policy here," said a representative of an airline company.
"But autonomy is a must for the progress of our aviation industry, especially the separation of the regulatory and airport authorities is an overdue issue."
Seeking anonymity, he said service provider and regulator are two separate authorities everywhere across the world.
The two authorities must be separated for providing better service for service seekers and the CAAB should take necessary steps in this regard, he added.
Many opined that the CAAB should either hand over the service providing responsibility to another authority or the government should outsource it.
Citing an example, an aviation expert said there are four civil aviation authorities in India-regulatory authority, security authority, airport authority and tariff authority.
All the four bodies have to report to the civil aviation ministry, he added.
"There is no necessity of infrastructure to separate the two functions of the CAAB. All it needs is to have superstructure," he said, seeking anonymity.
Another expert said the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) conducted the Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme (USOAP) in 2009.
The ICAO in its findings said, "Bangladesh has not established an organisational structure for the CAAB to specify the distribution of regulatory functions among departments and divisions, as well as the corresponding chain of responsibilities and accountabilities."
Moreover, the CAAB is also the service provider for the majority of air navigation services in addition to being the regulatory authority.
There is no distinct separation of responsibilities and accountabilities between regulatory and service provider functions for aerodromes, air navigation services and aviation training centres as both are reporting to the same CAAB board member (Ops and planning).
In May this year, in the final report of the ICAO Coordinated Validation Mission, it was recommended to complete certain things on priority basis.
Of those, it was suggested to expedite the implementation of the newly approved CAAB organisational structure to ensure effective separation between the regulatory and service provision functions.
Although there are allegations regarding poor service delivery at the airports are rife, the CAAB cannot take any action against any of its airport personnel.
