Japanese citizens leaving tomorrow on special flight

A total of 327 Japanese citizens are scheduled to leave Dhaka tomorrow morning on a special flight arranged by the Japanese government for those who opted to return home amid the coronavirus outbreak.

The chartered flight of Biman Bangladesh Airlines is scheduled to fly to Japan from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) at around 10:00am, Mokabbir Hossain, managing director and CEO of Biman Bangladesh Airlines, told The Daily Star.

If the number of Japanese citizens on the flight increase at the last moment, they can be accommodated as the aircraft -- a Boeing 777 -- has 400 seats, Air Vice Marshal M Mafidur Rahman, chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh told our correspondent.

Earlier, in the last seven days, around 633 citizens of the US, Malaysia and Bhutan left Bangladesh following the outbreak of Covid-19 coronavirus in the country.

Of them, 269 were US citizens, 225 were Malaysian and 139 were Bhutanese, sources at HSIA said.