Int’l flights suspended for one week from April 14: CAAB

Dhaka: Since the country is on the verge of going into a strict lockdown, the Civil Aviation Authority has announced to suspend all international flight operations to and from Bangladesh for a week from April 14.  

The chairman of the country’s civil aviation authority Air Vice Marshal M Mafidur Rahman informed this while speaking to The Bangladesh Monitor today.

Amid the full countrywide lockdown slated to begin from April 14, international arrivals will find it difficult to reach any destination in the country after landing and the departing passengers from Bangladesh will not be able to reach airports either to catch their respective flights, as transport services will remain suspended all across the nation, said CAAB Chairman, adding, this is why they decided to suspend international flights to and from the country.  

However, no restriction will be imposed on the movement of chartered flights, cargo flights, air ambulance and special flights, CAAB Chairman further noted.

It may be mentioned here, those who will arrive in the country on special flights have to go through mandatory institutional quarantine of 14 days either at government approved hotels or dedicated government quarantine facility upon arrival in Bangladesh. They will also have to bring Covid-19 PCR test negative results taken 72 hours prior to departure in order to fly to Bangladesh.  

Earlier, CAAB suspended all domestic passenger flight operations following the week-long countrywide lockdown from April 5. The suspension of domestic flight operations countrywide will also remain suspended during the strict lockdown period starting from April 14.

Last year, when the coronavirus infection rose in the country, all international flights were suspended to and from Bangladesh as well as all flights on domestic routes. Later, when the government was able to curb the spread of the coronavirus, domestic flights resumed from July while international flights restarted gradually.

As transmission has increased in the second phase now, CAAB currently suspended air communication with all European countries except the United Kingdom from April 3. In addition to this, flights from Argentina, Bahrain, Brazil, Chile, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Peru, Qatar, South Africa, Turkey, and Uruguay are also suspended.