bdnews24.com :
Air carriers have resumed domestic passenger operations a day after the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh eased restrictions on air travel in the nationwide lockdown.
US Bangla Airlines spokesperson Md Kamrul Islam said that five flights – from Dhaka to Chattogram, Sylhet, Jashore, Syedpur and Barishal — departed on Wednesday.
None of the scheduled flights had been cancelled.
Novoair said they had already run flights to Chattogram, Jashore and Syedpur on Wednesday and another flight headed from Dhaka to Sylhet was preparing to take off.
Several airlines announced their flight schedules on Tuesday, soon after CAAB lifted the ban on domestic air travel.
Biman announced it would begin operating flights from Dhaka to Chattogram, Sylhet, Barishal, Jashore and Syedpur from Thursday.
Biman spokesperson Tahera Khandker said the state-owned carrier would begin its regular domestic schedule and that no flights would be cancelled.
Novoair announced that it would operate three flights a day to Chattogram, two flights to Jashore, Sylhet and Syedpur and one each to Barishal and Rajshahi from Wednesday.
For its part, US-Bangla said that the airline would operate three flights a day to Chattogram, two each to Sylhet, Jashore and Syedpur and one to Barishal, starting Wednesday.
Air travel on domestic routes was shut down on Apr 5 in an effort to curb a massive second wave of coronavirus infections.
CAAB Chairman M Mafidur Rahman lifted the ban on all domestic routes, except Cox’s Bazar on Tuesday.
Regular international flights were also banned during the lockdown, but special flights were arranged for migrant workers travelling
to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar and Singapore.
Though domestic air travel was mainly resumed so migrant workers could travel to Dhaka to catch the special flights abroad, anyone can travel on these flights.
