Biman Bangladesh Airlines and the UAE’s Dubai-based Emirates Airlines will resume flight operations in Dhaka from Sunday while Bangladesh has planned to give a nod to Turkish Airlines and Sharjah’s Air Arabia to restart operations from July.

‘We have given permission to Emirates Airlines to operate three flights in a week on Dubai-Dhaka-Dubai route from June 21 on condition of carrying only transit passengers and the UAE nationals,’ Civil Aviation Authority chairman Air Vice Marshal M Mafidur Rahman said.

As per the request, Rahman said, the authority planned to give permission to Turkish Airlines to operate flights on Istanbul-Dhaka-Istanbul route from July 1 and the UAE’s Sharjah-based budget carrier Air Arabia after that.

On June 16, Bangladesh resumed international flight operation on a limited scale after nearly three months of flight suspension for containing outbreak of COVOD-19 pandemic.

Initially, the government decided to resume national flag carrier Biman Bangladesh Airlines flight on Dhaka-London-Dhaka route and had given permission to Qatar Airways to operate three weekly flights on Doha-Dhaka-Doha route.

Qatar Airways resumed its flight operation under condition of carrying only transit passengers from June 16, however Biman decided to restart its London flight from June 21.

As per the planning, Biman has taken all preparations to resume its Dhaka-London-Dhaka flight from Sunday ensuring social distancing in seat allocation and proper aircraft cleaning measures, a Biman’s release said on Thursday.

There will be modified meal service and care kits available for all passengers, it added.

‘Initially, we will operate a weekly flight to London on every Sunday ,’ said Biman’s spokesperson Tahera Khondoker.

Tahera, deputy general manager (PR) of Biman, said the first post resumption London flight BG-001 was scheduled to depart Dhaka at 11:40am on Sunday and return here from London at 10:15am on Monday via Sylhet.

Earlier, Civil Aviation and Tourism secretary Mohibul Haque said that Biman would operate daily London flight gradually like the previous regular scheduled flight upon getting enough passengers.

The senior secretary said the government would like to reestablish air connectivity with the external world on a limited scale while the country has almost been cut off from the globe as currently flight operation remains open with China only.

Emirates airlines will operate three weekly flights on Dubai-Dhaka-Dubai route on every Saturday, Monday and Thursday while Qatar Airlines is operating flights on Doha-Dhaka-Doha route on every Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday.

The civil aviation authority chairman said they have so far installed three disinfectant tunnels at the boarding gates to sanitize the incoming passengers before getting into the airport terminal.

‘We have planned to install four more such disinfectant tunnels at other gates of the airport including the VIP terminal gradually,’ Air Vice Marshal Rahman added.

He said that all the returnee passengers would have to be sent to a 14-day institutional quarantine if they fail to show COVID-19 negative certificate or to pass the medical examination at the airport upon their arrival here.

‘And, a 14-day home quarantine is made mandatory for all returnee passengers after their arrival here,’ he added.

On May 28, the government extended the ongoing suspension on commercial scheduled international flights for seventh consecutive times till June 15 to and from Bahrain, Bhutan, Hongkong, India, Kuwait, Malaysia, the Maldives, Nepal, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Thailand, Turkey, the UAE, and the UK.

From June 1, Bangladesh resumed domestic flight operations after more than two months on a limited scale.Report: newage