People rush for tickets as int’l flights resume

Many people were seen waiting in a long queue at a Qatar Airways ticket counter in the city's Tejgaon area yesterday, the first day of resumption of international flight operations to and from Dhaka after nearly three months.

Several of them said they couldn't buy any ticket after waiting at the counter for hours.

Qatar Airways and Biman Bangladesh Airlines arethe two airlines primarily granted permission by the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) to operate international flights on a limited scale.

"I came to the counter at 7:00am and waited several hours for a ticket, but in vain. A staffer at the counter said all tickets until the middle of next month were booked. I will lose my job if I fail to fly to Italy within next two weeks," said expatriate Bangladeshi Shamim Hossain who came home in January.

Like Shamim, some others complained that they didn't get tickets of Qatar Airways flights to travel to different Middle Eastern countries. They said they were also at risk of losing their jobs if they failed to reach their destinations within the next couple of weeks.

Speaking to this correspondent on condition of anonymity, a Qatar Airways official said they were issuing tickets considering the priorities of passengers.

"Our priority is to give tickets to passengers whose visas will expire soon and who are at risk of losing jobs," added the official.

Flight operations on all international and domestic routes, except for China, remained suspended since March 21 to curb the spread of Covid-19.

Flight operations on domestic routes resumed on June 1 on a limited scale. Carriers were allowed to operate flights on three domestic routes out of seven.

CAAB Chairman Air Vice Marshal M Mafidur Rahman said a Qatar Airways commercial flight, carrying 33 transit passengers from Doha, touched down at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport at 2:10am yesterday. It left for Doha with 274 transit travelers.

On June 11, the government decided to resume operations of Biman Bangladesh Airlines flights on Dhaka-London-Dhaka route. It granted permission to Qatar Airways to operate three flights a week from yesterday on Doha-Dhaka-Doha route on the condition that those would carry only transit passengers.

The CAAB chairman said they made all preparations to resume operations of international flights in line with health guidelines, prepared following instructions of the International Civil Aviation Organization.

The CAAB installed a disinfectant tunnel at a boarding gate of Dhaka airport for arriving passengers.

Qatar Airways will operate flights on Doha-Dhaka-Doha route on every Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday.

However, Biman has decided to operate Dhaka-London-Dhaka flights from June 21.

Tahera Khandaker, deputy general manager (public relations) of Biman, said they would initially operate one flight to London from Dhaka on every Sunday.

The CAAB chairman said they want to reestablish air links with different other countries considering the demand for flight tickets.