The chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) said on Tuesday that last weekend’s blaze at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport’s import cargo complex may have originated in the Import Courier Section.

Air Vice Marshal Md Mostafa Mahmud Siddik shared the preliminary assessment at a morning press briefing at CAAB headquarters in Kurmitola.

He stressed that investigators were still determining the exact cause and sequence of events, and that the formal probe would confirm whether the courier area was the ignition point.

Meanwhile, flights were suspended for about six hours on Saturday after a fire erupted around mid-afternoon in the airport’s Cargo Village; operations resumed that night as responders brought the blaze under control. 

Authorities said some 37 firefighting units, backed by military teams, took part. 

The blaze hit import warehouses near Gate-8 and sent smoke across the capital. Follow-on assessments warned of major disruption to Bangladesh’s apparel supply chain during peak season, with industry groups collating loss data and initial estimates running into the hundreds of millions of dollars. 

Safety questions have been raised over hydrant coverage and firefighting resources around cargo facilities, with local reporting noting gaps outside key buildings. CAAB’s current leadership, installed in July, has oversight of airport safety and compliance. 

Bangladesh’s garment sector—second largest globally—has faced a string of recent industrial fires, intensifying scrutiny of logistics nodes such as airport cargo complexes where raw materials, samples and finished goods converge.

SMS/