The government has moved to shut down the long-standing practice of ticket-brokering among travel agencies, saying the trade has created market chaos and led to massive overcharging of travellers.
Sheikh Bashiruddin, adviser to the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism, announced the decision at a press briefing at the Secretariat on Thursday.
“We want to end the brokerage business of travel agencies,” Sheikh Bashiruddin said, warning that the practice has become a primary cause of ticketing disorder.
He said two ordinances — the Civil Aviation (Amendment) Ordinance, 2025, and the Bangladesh Travel Agency (Registration and Control) (Amendment) Ordinance, 2025 — have been issued to put the new rules into force. Under the amendments, offenders face up to one year in jail and fines of up to Tk1,000,000.
The adviser said the ban will bar a travel agency from selling a ticket on behalf of another agency, stressing such intermediary trade is not a legitimate travel-agency activity. “We will stop this business,” he told journalists, adding that enforcing the law will make air fares more reasonable while protecting passengers’ rights and service standards.
Sheikh Bashiruddin highlighted the scale of the problem with an example: tickets that should cost around Tk40,000 have been sold for as much as Tk190,000. He said some 13.2 million people travelled abroad from Bangladesh last year, about 80 percent of them to the Middle East. “If an extra Tk50,000 were collected for such tickets, it would translate into a staggering outflow — an estimated Tk60,000 crore a year,” he said, calling the practice “a sea of fraud” that must be stopped.
On questions about group bookings and exemptions, the adviser said group ticketing for family travel will be allowed, but group bookings in the name of BMET (Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training) cardholders will not be permitted.
He stressed the government’s first priority is protecting the rights and interests of migrant workers and other outbound travellers, and the second is stopping the large-scale outflow of funds.
Sheikh Bashiruddin also addressed the role of General Sales Agents (GSAs), saying the GSA system had been made compulsory in 2017 by a single decision and that move contributed to distorted prices. “We want to restore open competition in the market,” he said.
The aim is not to simply lower fares by fiat, he added, but to create a market where fare-setting is driven by open demand and supply and where prices are rationalised.
To ensure compliance, the adviser said the ordinance creates clear liabilities for airlines and other actors, and enforcement will be a coordinated effort involving the ministry, the consumer rights authority, the Civil Aviation Authority and mobile courts. “Our goal is to establish responsibility and restore market discipline,” he said.
During the briefing, Sheikh Bashiruddin also touched on registration issues, clarifying that issuing registration does not transfer responsibility for visas or foreign-state decisions — those are matters for the relevant foreign authorities and bilateral business arrangements.
The government’s move signals a tougher stance to rein in intermediaries blamed for driving up travel costs and undermining protections for passengers, particularly the large number of migrant workers who travel to the Middle East for employment.