7 domestic flights cancelled on first day due to low passenger turnout

Domestic flight operation was resumed today on a limited scale on three routes from the capital after more than two months of suspension while local carriers cancelled seven scheduled flights due to poor passenger turnout.

Three local carriers – Biman Bangladesh Airlines, US-Bangla Airlines and Novoair – planned to operate 23 daily round trip flights – 11 on Dhaka-Chattogram-Dhaka, eight on Dhaka-Syedpur-Dhaka and four on Dhaka-Sylhet-Dhaka routes.

However, the national flag carrier Biman cancelled its five flights out of scheduled six flights while US-Bangla Airlines cancelled two flights out of ten. Novoair was able to operate its all seven scheduled flights to these three destinations from the capital.

“We were able to operate only one flight to Syedpur today as we had to cancel our five scheduled flights – two to Chattogram, two to Sylhet and one to Sydpur due to shortage of passengers,” Tahera Khandaker, deputy general manager (public relations) of Biman told BSS.

The first resumption flight of the national flag carrier left Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) for Saidpur at 7:45am with only 4 passengers on board and flew back with 20 passengers, she said.