Biman resumes direct flights to Abu Dhabi

Biman Bangladesh Airlines has resumed its direct flights from Dhaka to Abu Dhabi on Sunday.

It will operate two flights on the route -- on Sunday and Thursday, said a press release.

Besides, the national flag carrier will resume its direct flights from Dhaka to Dubai, another city of the UAE, on Monday and it will operate five flights -- on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday – on the route.

The passengers can purchase their tickets from its office and travel agencies, the release added.

The air communication with the UAE is very crucial as the country hosts thousands of Bangladeshi expatriate. Besides, Bangladesh has a good trade relation with the country. The importance of the air communication with the UAE also increased for the Dubai’s Expo 2020, the first-ever world trade fair in the Mideast.

Earlier on September 22, a Emirates flight took off from Dhaka as the first UAE-bound departure from Bangladesh since April this year.

It carried 46 Bangladeshi passengers, mostly expatriate workers, following their tests for Covid-19 performed in a mobile RT-PCR laboratory at their own cost at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in the capital just six hours before the flight.

The government set up the laboratory on an experimental basis and it marked the first instance of compliance with the UAE’s condition that all incoming passengers would have to go through Covid testing a maximum of six hours before their flight.

Earlier, Bangladeshis intent on visiting the United Arab Emirates have been facing obstruction for weeks to fly directly to the Middle Eastern country as the Bangladesh government was lingering over the installation of the prescribed Covid RT-PCR test facilities at its international airports.

Many of the several thousand Bangladeshi expatriates who came back to Bangladesh on a visit before May this year could not return for months due to the Covid restrictions imposed by the UAE.