Flight suspension extends till May 16

GBNEWS24 DESK//

The government today extended the ongoing ban on flight operation for the fifth consecutive time till May 16 to and from all European countries and the nations that restricted the entry of Bangladeshis to their territories as well as on all domestic routes over the coronavirus fear.

The commercial scheduled international flights will remain suspended till May 16 to and from Bahrain, Bhutan, Hongkong, India, Kuwait, Malaysia, Maldives, Nepal, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Thailand, Turkey, UAE, and the UK, said a Civil Aviation Authority, Bangladesh (CAAB) circular, signed by its chairman today.

Along with that, it said, all domestic flights will remain suspended till May 16 while cargo, special, air ambulance, relief carrying flights and emergency landing aircraft remain out of this ban.

Currently, flights are being operated from Bangladesh to only China.

This is the fifth time Bangladesh extended flight suspension period as the government earlier extended it from March 31 to April 7, from April 8 to 14, from April 15 to 30 and then May 1 to May 7 while the ban on some international flights first began on March 16.

Meanwhile, different countries, including the USA, the UK, Canada, Turkey,
Australia, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Bhutan, and different European countries so far operated several special chartered flights amid the flight suspension to repatriate their citizens from here.

Bangladesh government also facilitated chartered flights to bring back its nationals from a number of countries, including India, Singapore and Thailand.

More than 250,000 people have so far been killed and nearly 3.6 million infected worldwide by the COVID-19, which has left half of humanity under some form of lockdown and pushed the global economy towards its worst downturn