The Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) has decided to allow Biman Bangladesh Airlines to operate direct flights from Sylhet to London likely to start from October 4.
CAAB Chairman Air Vice Marshal Mafidur Rahman disclosed the matter to Dhaka Tribune on Wednesday evening.
The CAAB chief said that a virtual meeting was held on Wednesday between CAAB and UK’s Department for Transport (DfT) to finalize the direct flights on the Sylhet-London-Sylhet route.
In the meeting, CAAB proposed DfT about the resumption of direct flights on the Sylhet-London route while appraising the UK team regarding the steps, and preparations taken by the Bangladeshi aviation authority to curb the spread of Covid-19, the CAAB chairman added.
The meeting was attended by Kashif Chaudry, a director of UK’s DfT, and he agreed upon the proposals made by CAAB and further discussed other bilateral issues.
CAAB chief further said that a team of UK’s DfT will be visiting the Sylhet MAG Osmani International Airport for inspection.
“They are supposed to come by next week and if they don’t then it will mean that we have got the clearance and will start operating direct flights to London from October 4,” he added.
Air Vice Marshal Mafidur Rahman said that CAAB and DfT also discussed promoting aviation security, “They [DfT] also assured us of providing technical support to promote Bangladesh’s aviation sector.”
Earlier in August this year, Biman Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mokabbir Hossain told Dhaka Tribune that they are waiting for the Covid-19 situation to become normal to operate direct flights on the London-Sylhet-London route.
It will not be commercially viable for Biman to operate flights to this route during the pandemic, they echoed.
However, early this year, a team of the UK’s DfT was supposed to visit the Sylhet airport for an overall inspection.
But the team could not come due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and this halted the efforts of resuming direct flights to London from Sylhet.