Chaos at Dhaka airport as holidaymakers rush ahead of Eid

Situation at Dhaka airport has turned chaotic with mad rush of thousands of holidaymakers leaving the capital ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr.

A huge number of people have opted to fly to their destinations across the country, including tourist locations, for the extended Eid holidays.

While they certainly assumed a journey by air will be time-saving and involve less hassles, passengers are in for a hard time at almost every single point at Dhaka airport due to disruption in flight schedules and poor passenger handling services, according to sources at the airport.

Long queues of passengers were seen at check-in counters of different airlines, while many are having to wait for a long time at immigration and boarding bridge.

Several passengers bound for Saidpur, Jashore and Barishal said they had to wait for hours at the check-in counters and their flights were delayed by one to two hours.

According to Dhaka airport authorities, the pressure on domestic and international flights and passenger sufferings will come down once the 24-hour flight schedule resumes from mid-May.

Currently, flight operations are suspended for eight hours from midnight due to the construction work of the third terminal and lighting of the taxiway.

Group Capt Kamrul Islam, executive director of HSIA, said that all three airlines of the country are operating additional flights ahead of Eid which increased the pressure of passengers at the airport.

"We are trying to provide all kinds of facilities within our capacity," he added.

Currently, around 33 domestic and international airlines are operating around 90 flights on average every day, according to the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB).

CAAB estimates that the number of passengers daily may exceed 16,000-18,000 in the next seven days due to the Eid rush while the number of passengers during regular times is around 13,000-14,000.