Three airlines resume domestic flight service in Bangladesh

At least three airlines in Bangladesh have resumed their domestic flight service as the government relaxed its strict pandemic measures.

State carrier Biman Bangladesh Airlines began operating domestic flights on Thursday morning, said Tahera Khandaker, a spokeswoman for Biman.

Flights left Dhaka for Syedpur, Chattogram and Jashore at 7.30 am and 8 am, she said.

Biman will operate three flights to Chattogram, three flights to Syedpur and two flights to Cox's Bazar every day. There will be two flights per day to Jashore and Sylhet as well and a single flight to Rajshahi and Barishal each.

Two US-Bangla flights had left Dhaka for Chattogram, Sylhet, Jashore and Syedpur each, as of 10:30 am on Thursday, said company spokesman Md Kamrul Islam.

US-Bangla flights also left Dhaka for Cox's Bazar, Barishal and Rajshahi this morning. Single flights from Chattogram, Sylhet, Jashore, Syedpur, Cox's Bazar, Barisal and Rajshahi have also arrived in Dhaka.

US-Bangla will operate 32 domestic flights per day, the spokesman said.

Novoair was operating flights to Chattogram, Syedpur, Jashore, Cox's Bazar, Rajshahi and Barishal as of 9:30 am on Thursday, the company said.

The airline plans to have six flights to Chattogram, Syedpur and Jashore per day, and two flights each to Cox's Bazar and Sylhet. There will also be four flights to Barishal and three flights to Rajshahi. All flights will also return to Dhaka carrying passengers.

The Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh, or CAAB, is allowing the airlines to resume flights on domestic routes from Jul 15 to Jul 23 as the government relaxed its restrictions.

Domestic flights will be barred again after Eid-ul-Azha, starting at 6 am on Jul 23 and continuing until Aug 5.

On Jul 5, CAAB suspended all domestic flights from Jul 8 to 14. It also halted international flights coming from eight countries.

The government imposed a strict lockdown on Jul 1 as a second wave of COVID-19 spread across the country. It was later extended to Jul 14.

In March of last year, CAAB had banned the operation of all international and domestic flights due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Flight service gradually resumed from July last year but saw another halt on Apr 5 of this year.