Domestic flights to and from the city of Rajshahi resumed on Tuesday after being suspended for more than three months due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Civil Aviation Authority, Bangladesh (CAAB) Chairman Md Mafidur Rahman told Dhaka Tribune that they are allowing the domestic airport in Rajshahi to operate on a limited scale.
“We are always ready to resume flight operations. But it depends on the ensuring of safety measures at the airports by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) as stipulated in the 2005 World Health Organization (WHO) regulations,” he said.
After keeping all commercial flight operations suspended for over two months, CAAB lifted the ban on domestic routes to Chittagong, Sylhet and Saidpur on June 1, while the Jessore route was reopened on June 11 and the Barisal route on July 12.
However, flights to the beach town of Cox’s Bazar still remain suspended despite repeated calls from airlines to resume them.
“We are in touch with the DGHS to ensure safety measures at the Cox’s Bazar airport, so that flights can be operated from there,” said the CAAB chief.
The two airlines US-Bangla and Novoair will daily operate two flights each on the Dhaka-Rajshahi route, while Biman Bangladesh Airlines is keeping its domestic flights closed due to passenger shortage.
Kamrul Islam, general manager (PR) of the US-Bangla Airlines said a flight will take off for Rajshahi from Dhaka at 10am on Tuesday, and another at 2:30pm. The flights will start for Dhaka from Rajshahi at 11:20am and 3:50pm respectively.
The two flights of Novoair will leave Dhaka at 10:30am and 4:30pm. They will depart Rajshahi at 11:45am and 5:45pm respectively.