Staff Reporter :
Biman Bangladesh Airlines has suspended all its flights bound for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) for a week, as the Saudi government suspended on all international commercial flights due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
The national flag carrier cancelled all its flights towards Jeddah, Riyadh, and Dammam from Monday, said Tahera Khandaker, Deputy General Manager (public relations) of Biman, in a press release.
As a result, hundreds of passengers have been stranded at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) as they gathered to fly before the decision. The Saudi bound passengers showed their dissatisfaction and anger at the cancellation.
They were also worried about their VISA and AKMA (The work permit in Saudi Arabia) fearing they would not be able to reach their work places in due time. The stranded expatriates also urged the government to take initiatives for enhancing their VISA and AKMA’s validity date.
Few Saudi bound migrant workers said, we paid a huge amount to buy a ticket. Besides, we have Covid-19 test certificates, but the authority cancelled flights at eleventh hour when we reached airport to fly.
Managing Director of Biman Bangladesh Airlines Md Mokabbir Hossain said a total of 42 flights between Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia have been cancelled in view of the Saudi kingdom’s suspension of all international flights for one week.
While talking to reporters, he said around 5,000 passengers got stuck in Bangladesh. They wanted to go to Jeddah, Riyadh and Dammam.
Similarly flights from Saudi Arabia were also cancelled which led to 6,000 passengers getting stranded there, the Biman MD said.
He also said passengers will have to buy tickets afresh once the flight operation resumes. “However, no fee will be charged. Those got stuck will get the priority in seat allotment.”
The Bangladesh government has decided to suspend the flight operation of airlines that will carry passengers without Covid-19 negative certificates as part of its initiative to curb the spread of coronavirus.
Chairman of Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) Air Vice Marshal M Mafidur Rahman said that they have asked all airlines to refrain from carrying Covid-19 patients, but six patients were found boarding the Biman Bangladesh Airlines from Saudi Arabia.
On June 16, flight operations on international routes from Bangladesh resumed after over two months of suspension.
On Sunday, Saudi Arabia halted international flights and suspended entry through its land and sea ports for at least a week, after a new fast-spreading strain of coronavirus appeared in Britain.
The kingdom is “temporarily suspending all international flights — except in exceptional cases — for a period of one week, which can be extended by another week,” the official Saudi Press Agency said.
“Entry to the kingdom through land and sea ports will also be suspended for a week, which can be extended by another week,” SPA added, citing the Ministry of Interior.
The suspension does not apply to international aircraft currently in the kingdom, which will be allowed to leave, SPA said.
The development comes after several European countries banned travel from Britain on Sunday as the UK government warned that a highly infectious new strain of the virus was “out of control.”
SPA said passengers who arrived in Saudi Arabia from Europe — or any country where the new strain was detected — starting December 8 will be required to go on self-isolation for two weeks, and undergo testing.
Neighbouring Kuwait also announced a ban on Sunday on passenger flights from Britain over the new strain of the virus.
Alarm bells are ringing across Europe, which last week became the first region in the world to witness 500,000 deaths from Covid-19 — after it appeared that a more infectious strain of the virus was raging in parts of Britain.
Last week, Saudi Arabia kicked off a three-phase Covid-19 vaccination program, after the first shipments of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine arrived in the kingdom.
