Biman Bangladesh Airlines has cancelled all its flights scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday due to an inadequate number of passengers.
However, all Biman flights are set to resume from Friday.
Tahera Khondoker, deputy general manager (Public Relations) of Biman, spoke of the decision with Dhaka Tribune on Wednesday morning.
The airline had flights scheduled on three different routes: Dhaka-Chittagong, Dhaka-Sylhet and Dhaka-Saidpur.
The national flag carrier spokesperson said: “We are observing the situation and trying to resume flights as per passenger demands.”
Altogether 46 flights have been cancelled since the resumption of flights was announced on June 1.
“We were set to operate 12 flights per day,” said the Biman spokesperson.
Biman was supposed to operate 12 flights on three routes on Monday. But only two flights were operated owing to a lack of passengers while other private airways smoothly operated their flights.
In addition, Biman is offering tickets at lower prices, making its fares more affordable amidst the current coronavirus crisis.
Tickets now cost Tk2500 on Dhaka-Chittagong or Dhaka-Sylhet routes. A Dhaka-Saidpur flight costs Tk2700.
On the other hand, US-Bangla Airlines, one of the leading private airlines of the country, operated 10 flights on Tuesday and was scheduled to operate 8 flights on Wednesday on the same routes.
“Four flights will depart for Chittagong, one for Sylhet, and three for Saidpur,” said US-Bangla General Manager (Public Relations) Kamrul Islam.
Another private airline, Novoair, is operating six flights on Wednesday - two on the Chittagong route, one on the Sylhet route, and three on the Saidpur route, according to Novoair Senior Marketing and Sales Manager AKM Mahfuzul Alam.
Additionally, the same number of flights will operate on Thursday on the same routes. Besides, seven flights were operated on Tuesday, he added.
Domestic flight operations in the country are being run at a reduced scale from Monday after a hiatus of almost two months due to the coronavirus pandemic.
A week after the first virus cases were reported on March 8, Bangladesh suspended visa-on-arrivals for all countries on March 15 and banned some international flights the next day.
Two weeks later, on March 31, the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) suspended all passenger flights till April 7, which suspension was subsequently extended to May 30.