A new analysis of Dhaka's airport expansion argues that the third terminal at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport cannot deliver its full economic value unless Bangladesh builds a world-class cargo village alongside it.

The argument, laid out in The Business Standard, is straightforward: the garment and textiles sector that dominates Bangladesh's exports moves by air, and the country's largest airport has historically constrained that flow. A terminal designed primarily around passenger processing does not, by itself, resolve the bottleneck.

The case rests on the gap between terminal capacity and freight handling capacity. Air cargo is not a byproduct of passenger operations at a hub like Dhaka. It is the core commercial function. Exporters shipping ready-made garments, leather goods and perishables need dedicated freighter stands, cold-chain storage, screening capacity sized for unit load devices, bonded warehousing and customs processing measured in hours rather than days.

A cargo village consolidates those functions. The model has been deployed at competing hubs across South and Southeast Asia, where airports treat freight infrastructure as a revenue engine rather than an afterthought. Airports that invested in integrated cargo facilities captured transshipment traffic and high-yield express freight. Airports that deferred that investment watched carriers route freight through neighboring countries, adding cost and transit time for local exporters.

The report frames the third terminal as necessary but insufficient. Bangladesh's export economy depends on speed to market. Buyers in Europe and North America place orders with short lead times, and air freight is the mechanism that makes those lead times credible. If cargo throughput remains constrained while passenger capacity expands, the country risks a mismatch: more gates, more check-in desks, but the same queue of export shipments waiting for belly space and freighter slots.

Customs and ground handling sit at the center of the problem. A cargo village works only when regulators, handlers and airport authorities operate as a single system. Dwell time for export cargo is the metric that matters. Every hour a shipment spends in a warehouse before loading is an hour added to Bangladesh's effective distance from its customers.

The stakes extend beyond the current export mix. Pharmaceutical exports, agricultural produce and e-commerce flows all require cold-chain and time-definite handling that conventional cargo sheds cannot provide. Without that capability, those sectors stay anchored to slower modes or ship through foreign hubs.

The report's central claim is ultimately about sequencing. Terminal buildings are visible, politically legible projects. Freight infrastructure is less photogenic but determines whether an airport serves its national economy or merely processes it. The third terminal gives Dhaka the front door. The cargo village determines whether the goods can actually get through it.

Whether Bangladesh's authorities move to fund and build that freight capacity alongside the new terminal will define the airport's role in the region for the next decade.