ZOOMBANGLA DESK: Biman Bangladesh Airlines and Saudia Airlines will operate 10 chartered flights to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) within Sept 30 to carry back stranded Bangladeshi expatriates to this middle eastern country while both the countries’ flag carriers are set to operate commercial flights in full swing from October 1, BSS reports.

Biman Bangladesh Airlines today announced fresh schedule of two more chartered flights to Saudi Arabia, on Dhaka-Riyadh and on Dhaka-Jeddha routes, on September 29 and 30 respectively for the passengers those have return tickets of Biman’s suspended March 18 to 20 flights to these destinations.

The national flag carrier has requested the passengers (of March 18-20 flights) to contact Biman’s sales offices in the capital with
return tickets, passports and other COVID-19 related supporting papers on September 25 or 26, a Biman’s press release said here this evening.

Earlier on Wednesday, Biman declared that it would operate two chartered flights to Saudi Arabia, on Dhaka-Jeddha and Dhaka-Riyadh routes on September 26 and 27 respectively only for the passengers those have return tickets of Biman’s suspended March 16 and 17 flights to these destinations.

Meanwhile, Saudia Airlines decided to operate six special flights from Dhaka within September 30 facilitating the return of Bangladeshi workers to KSA, airlines official said.

Apart from the six special flights, the KSA’s national carrier will continue to operate their two weekly regular flights from Dhaka till September 30 while it is set to resume its full-scale regular flight operation here from October 1.

Earlier, foreign minister Dr A K Abdul Momen said that the Saudi civil aviation authority had given landing permission for all commercial scheduled flights of Biman Bangladesh Airlines from October 1 to carry back the stranded Bangladeshi workers from here to Saudi Arabia.

Bangladesh Civil Aviation Authority has already given approval to Saudia airlines to operate flights between Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia as many as they can to ensure return of the Bangladeshi expatriate workers.

As per Saudi Arabian immigration regulations, all passengers must show COVID-19 negative certificates at the final destination, issued not before 48
hours of arrival in Saudi Arabia.

Huge numbers of expatriate Bangladeshi workers, who came from KSA that hosts 22 lakhs of Bangladeshi citizens to visit their families here before the outbreak of coronavirus, have been stuck in the country due to flight suspension following the global lockdown.