Online travel agency Flight Expert, a major player in Bangladesh’s digital travel booking market, has abruptly ceased operations amid allegations of large-scale financial fraud, leaving thousands of customers and travel agents in uncertainty over booked air tickets worth millions of takas.
Founded in March 2017, Flight Expert offered airline ticketing, hotel bookings, and tour packages through its online platform. The company’s website went offline last Saturday afternoon. Hours earlier, Managing Director Salman Bin Rashid reportedly informed staff via an internal WhatsApp group that he was shutting down the company and leaving the country to “protect himself” from mounting legal trouble. Employees shared the message with local media, sparking public outrage. In his statement, Rashid claimed two senior officials had betrayed him, putting him in jeopardy. Following the sudden shutdown, the owner of Sarkar Tours and Travels filed a complaint at Dhaka’s Motijheel police station. Authorities confirmed three individuals have been arrested in connection with the case, although the main accused remain at large. The arrested individuals were denied bail and are currently in custody.
Travel agents who bought tickets in bulk from Flight Expert are now unsure whether they can recover their funds or fulfill customer bookings. One such agent, Tripploy, reported purchasing tickets worth BDT 2.2 million from the now-defunct platform. “Our customers don’t care who Flight Expert is — they only know us, the agents who sold them the tickets,” said Taufiq Mahbub Barshan, CEO of Tripploy. “We don’t know what to tell them now.”
Numerous travel agencies are reporting similar situations, with some having spent tens of millions of takas on advance ticket purchases through Flight Expert. While many agents are pledging to honor their commitments to customers, they remain unsure whether they will be reimbursed for the tickets they already issued. A writ petition has been filed seeking a freeze on all financial accounts of Flight Expert Limited, its directors, shareholders, and beneficiaries. The petition also seeks a court order to ban the company’s top executives from leaving the country without judicial permission.
Efforts by the Press to reach Flight Expert for comment were unsuccessful as phone lines remained switched off.
The scandal has sent shockwaves through the country’s online travel industry, which had seen significant growth in recent years, raising broader questions about regulatory oversight and consumer protection in Bangladesh’s digital marketplace.
