Bangladesh resumed international flights on June 16, after scheduled passenger flights were halted due to the coronavirus pandemic for two months.
The Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) suspended scheduled domestic and international flights on March 21 and extended the ban several times. On June 11, it announced that international flights could resume as long as health and safety protocols were followed.
The CAAB said flights from or to some countries were still prohibited including Bahrain, Bhutan, Hong Kong, India, Kuwait, Malaysia, Maldives, Nepal, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Thailand, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates.
Initial flights will serve Qatar and the United Kingdom, with Biman Bangladesh Airlines (BG, Dhaka) resuming flight services on the Dhaka-London Heathrow-Dhaka route while Qatar Airways (QR, Doha Hamad International) will only be able to transport passengers between Doha and Dhaka, bdnews24 reported civil aviation and tourism secretary, Mohibul Haque, as saying.
Qatar Airways flights were operating to and from Dhaka, a Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport representative told United News of Bangladesh. The airline will operate three flights a week on the Doha-Dhaka route. Biman Bangladesh will start flying to the United Kingdom on June 21.
Turkish Airlines (TK, Istanbul Airport) and Emirates (EK, Dubai International) have applied to resume regular flights to Bangladesh, the CAAB told the Dhaka Tribune on June 15, and hope to resume flights in July.
The CAAB also allowed general aviation and helicopter flights from June 16 except from areas under lockdown. Scheduled domestic passenger flights resumed from June 1.
