Chittagong airport suspends flights as Cyclone Mora nears

All flights in and out of Chittagong’s Shah Amanat International Airport from Tuesday morning to afternoon have been cancelled as Cyclone Mora is set to make landfall on Bangladesh’s coasts.

Chittagong Bureaubdnews24.com
Published : 29 May 2017, 04:10 PM
Updated : 29 May 2017, 06:18 PM

Mohammad Reazul Kabir, the airport’s manager, told bdnews24.com that no flights would be operated from 5:45am to 2pm on Tuesday.

The cyclone is likely to make landfall by Tuesday.    

The Cox’s Bazar airport will take a decision at 9am on Tuesday after evaluating the situation further, Sadhan Kumar Mohanta, a spokesman, told bdnews24.com.

The flight schedule remained unchanged at Dhaka’s Shahjalal International Airport.

KM Zafaruzzaman, an assistant general manager of Regent Airways at Shahjalal International Airport, said the airline received a notice on the suspension of the flight operations in Chittagong.

“The civil aviation authorities informed us by phone that the suspension of flight operations may be extended if the weather remains bad.”

Shakil Meraj, a general manager of Biman Bangladesh Airlines, said a Biman aircraft from Dubai was scheduled to land in Cox’s Bazar at 7am and another in Chittagong from Muscat at 9am on Tuesday.

A flight from Dhaka to Kolkata via Chittagong was also scheduled for Tuesday morning, he said.

Regent Airways’ Zafaruzzaman said one of their flights was scheduled to land in Chittagong from Muscat at 8am.

These flights will be redirected to Dhaka if they cannot land in Chittagong.

The Biman flight from Dhaka to Cox’s Bazar, scheduled for 11:30am, is also uncertain now.