Passenger shortage: NovoAir flights suspended on Dhaka-Kolkata route

NovoAir says it will resume flight service once Indian visas are more readily available to travellers

Following the fall of the Awami League government and restricted visa operations by the Indian embassy in Bangladesh, NovoAir has suspended its flights on the Dhaka-Kolkata route due to decreased passenger numbers.

“Most travellers from Bangladesh are unable to go to India because they are not getting visas,” said NovoAir Head of Marketing and Sales Mesbahul Islam. “That is why we have temporarily suspended flights on the Kolkata route from Monday.”

NovoAir will resume the flights once visa processing regains its usual pace, he said.

Another NovoAir official said: “We used to run one flight on the Dhaka-Kolkata route each day for seven flights a week. Nearly 2,000 passengers would make the trip each month. Currently, three flights are running on the route. We were still making losses. You can basically say that there are no passengers.”

The short-distance ATR 72-500 aircraft, with a 70-passenger capacity, was plying the route for NovoAir. About half the seats on the plane were regularly empty in recent days.

NovoAir began operating on the Dhaka-Kolkata route in December 2016 and briefly suspended flights during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

Ticket prices on the Dhaka-Kolkata route range from Tk 12,000 to Tk 18,000 based on the airline. The low passenger numbers have made it difficult to cover operating costs.

Other airlines have also reduced flights on the route, with private carrier US-Bangla cutting down from 14 flights to six, and Biman Bangladesh Airlines reducing the flights from 14 to seven. The number of flights plying the Dhaka-Chennai and Dhaka-Delhi routes has also decreased.