Bangladesh-India air bubble flights likely to restart 4 Sept

The air bubble flights between Bangladesh and India are likely to be resumed Saturday, instead of Friday, before the restart of scheduled international passenger flights, according to the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB), UNB reports.

The proposal of resumption of air bubble flights with seven frequencies has been accepted. However, a proposal of allocation of 10 frequencies is in place for consideration.

Irrespective of the Covid-19 vaccination, any passenger travelling from India will have to complete a 14-day strict home quarantine. All other related provisions, including the requirement of mandatory RT-PCR test, would apply to such passengers as mentioned in Air Transportation Circular issued on 16 August, which may be amended from time to time.

However, the carriage of passengers can be restricted to 90 per cent of the total seating capacity of the aircraft used.

In addition to the requirement to the category of passengers, suggested in its previous letter issued on 4 August, CAAB proposed including “passengers with business visa” – namely to help airlines crew to travel to India for simulator training.

On 28 August, the Indian civil aviation ministry said in a statement that flight operations between the two countries may resume from 3 September under the air bubble agreement.