Budget airline AirAsia will begin operating from Bangladesh this month after the authorities adopted a three-month "open sky" policy allowing foreign airlines more flights, an official said Monday.

From October 1 to December 31, Bangladesh hopes to clear a backlog of 150,000 people who have jobs waiting abroad but no flights to get them there.

"AirAsia has availed the opportunity and we have allowed them to fly five flights a week from the port city of Chittagong to Kuala Lumpur," Bangladesh civil aviation authority chief Shakeb Iqbal Khan Majlish said.

"They said they would operate Airbus A330 aircraft with a capacity of 312 passengers. They would start flights from the middle of October," he said.

The airline had also been given permission to continue flights after December 31, he added.

AirAsia will be the second budget airline to operate from Chittagong, the country's second biggest city with a population of around five million.

Sharjah-based Air Arabia was the first to operate budget flights six months ago and they have gradually increased their weekly flights from three to seven.

AirAsia, which was launched as a budget carrier in December 2001 with just two aircraft, has become a significant player in the industry and been imitated by national carriers along with a host of new low-cost entrants.

AirAsia operates from a dedicated low-cost terminal at Kuala Lumpur International Airport and boasts southeast Asia's biggest low-cost fleet. It also operates in Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines and China.

Majlish said the entry of AirAsia into the market would help clear the backlog. Some 150,000 people who have found jobs in Malaysia and the Middle East have been unable to fly because of a shortage of flights.

Money sent home by Bangladeshi expatriate workers underpin the economy of the impoverished nation of 144 million people.

The government's manpower export department pleaded for the open sky policy for a limited period to meet demand after a record 520,000 people went abroad for work in the first eight months of 2007, a 123 percent increase over the same period a year earlier.