Bangladesh extends flight suspension till May 7

ZOOMBANGLA DESK: Bangladesh today extended ongoing ban on flight operation for the fourth consecutive time till May 7 to and from all European countries and the nations that restricted the entry of Bangladeshis to their territories as well as on all domestic routes over the coronavirus fear, BSS reports.

The commercial scheduled international flights will remain suspended till May 7 to and from 16 countries – Bahrain, Bhutan, Hongkong, India, Kuwait, Malaysia, Maldives, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Thailand, Turkey, UAE, and the UK, said a Civil Aviation Authority, Bangladesh (CAAB) circular, signed by its chairman, here today.

Along with that, it said, all domestic flights will remain suspended till May 7 while cargo, special, air ambulance, relief carrying flights and emergency landing aircraft remain out of this ban.

Currently, flights are being operated from Bangladesh to only China.

This is the fourth time Bangladesh extended flight suspension period as the government earlier extended it thrice from March 31 to April 7, from April 8 to 14 and then from April 15 to 30 while the ban on some international flights first began on March 16.

On March 21, the CAAB imposed a ban on commercial flight operation to and from 10 countries – Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Turkey, Malaysia, Oman, Singapore and India while suspension of all domestic flight operations started on March 25.

Meanwhile, different countries, including the USA, the UK, Canada, Turkey, Australia, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Bhutan, and different European countries so far operated several special chartered flights amid the flight suspension to repatriate their citizens from here.

Bangladesh government also facilitated chartered flights to bring back its nationals from a number of countries, including India, Singapore and Thailand.