Few passengers on 1st day
Yesterday was the first day of the resumption of regular domestic flight operation. After a 16-day recess, two private airlines -- US-Bangla and Novoair -- operated flights from the capital in the morning.
The Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) on Tuesday allowed three airlines to operate flights on five domestic routes -- Chattogram, Saidpur, Sylhet, Barishal and Jashore -- on a limited scale from yesterday.
Meanwhile, flights on the Dhaka-Rajshahi route will resume from today.
Besides US-Bangla and Novoair, Biman Bangladesh Airlines will resume its flights on different domestic routes from today, said Tahera Khondoker, deputy general manager of the national carrier.
On the first day of resumption, the number of passengers on most of the flights were low, airlines sources said.
The number of passengers who boarded Novoair's Dhaka-Chattogram flight was only three to four, said Mesbah-ul-Islam, head of Novoair's marketing and sales department. He said the number of passengers on the return flight to Dhaka was the same.
On Novoair's Dhaka-Saidpur flight, the number was much higher as 58 people boarded the flight. The airlines also carried 32 passengers to Jashore and came back to Dhaka with 28.
Though US-Bangla's Dhaka-Sylhet flight flew with only three passengers, the airlines carried 28 passengers on the Dhaka-Chattogram route, airlines spokesperson Kamrul Islam told The Daily Star.
On its Dhaka-Saidpur route, the airlines carried 49 passengers, Kamrul Islam added.
He said though the number of passengers was relatively lower in the morning, it picked up later in the day.
Novoair's Mesbah-ul-Islam attributed the low numbers of the first day to the lack of publicity regarding flight resumption.
He also cited the ongoing month of Ramadan as another reason behind the low number of passengers on some routes.
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