Facing turbulence due to the growing spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, the country’s aviation industry has mapped out a plan to bounce back as the authority concerned has allowed both national and international airliners to resume flight operations on a limited scale.
Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) Chairman Air Vice Marshal M Mafidur Rahman told The Bangladesh Post, that “The aviation sector is slowly recovering around the world. If we want to keep the wheel of the economy moving, this sector must have to bounce back”.
After a long period of stagnation due to the effects of coronavirus, almost all airliners are resuming their operations. The number of flight operations is also increasing gradually.
Flight operations in most of the domestic routes have already started while international flight operations resumed on June 16.
The concerned official informed that state-owned Biman Bangladesh Airlines and Qatar Airlines were allowed to operate flights on international routes. Similarly, the UAE’s Dubai based Emirates Airlines was also allowed to operate flights from Dhaka.
After more than two months of suspension, Biman has resumed international flight operation through Dhaka-London route on Sunday this week.
“The Biman flight BG-001 carrying 187 passengers left Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) for London at 12:02pm on Sunday,” said Biman’s deputy general manager (PR) TaheraKhandaker.
Initially, the national flag carrier will operate a weekly flight with its Dreamliner 787-8 to London on every Sunday while the return flight will reach Dhaka via Sylhet on every Monday, added Khandaker.
But immediately after announcing the flight operation, due to a huge rush of ticket buyers, Qatar Airways authority shut down the Dhaka office temporarily. In this regard, the authority issued a letter on June 17 requesting all concerned to purchase tickets online. The airliner resumed its flight operation under the condition of carrying only transit passengers.
However, due to abundant passenger responses, the CAAB has decided to allow more operators to operate flights on international routes.
In this regard, CAAB Chairman Mafidur Rahman said, “We have planned to give permission to Turkish Airlines to operate flights on Istanbul-Dhaka-Istanbul route and also the UAE’s Sharjah based budget carrier Air Arabia from July 1”.
He also confirmed that until now four more airliners have applied seeking permission to operate flights from Dhaka.
“We are talking to the respective civil aviation authorities of other countries. We told them that if their flights come to our country, then our country's airlines should also be given the opportunity to operate flights from that country. Hopefully, they will agree to allow our flight operations from respective countries”, added Mafidur.
On the other hand, US-Bangla Airlines has been operating 32 domestic flights daily. General manager of the airlines Kamrul Islam told The Bangladesh Post that, “We are looking forward to increasing more daily flights gradually. If the concerned authority allows, soon we will operate international flights on Oman, Doha, and Muscat routes”.
Besides, another private airliner-Novoair- is also operating 22 daily flights on domestic routes.
According to CAAB information, soon they will allow flight operations on the country’s Cox’s Bazar, Rajshahi and Barishal routes.
By ensuring social distancing in seat allocation and proper aircraft cleaning measures as per the guidelines of CAAB, the concerned authority is giving permission to operate flights on a limited scale.