TDS Desk:

The Bangladeshi airline business has suffered a substantial setback due to a sharp decline in passengers following the decision by Indian authorities to suspend tourist visas and only permit medical and student visas on a limited scale since the fall of the Awami League government.

Consequently, the airliners have no other option but to reduce the number of flights.

Three Bangladeshi airlines – Biman Bangladesh Airlines, US-Bangla and NovoAir – operate flights to India along with India’s Vistara Airlines, Air India and IndiGo. Two airlines have halved their flights while one has stopped flights considering the current reality.

US-Bangla Airlines used to operate the most flights from Bangladesh to India. Before 5 August, the airliner operated 32 flights a week on three routes – Dhaka-Kolkata, Dhaka-Chennai and Chattogram-Kolkata, but since 5 August, the number has reduced to 12.

“US-Bangla Airlines operated two daily flights from Dhaka to Kolkata – 14 flights a week. However, considering the present situation, we operate only six flights weekly. We were operating one flight daily from Chattogram. Due to lack of passengers, we had to stop flight operation on the Chattogram-Kolkata route,” Md Kamrul Islam, general manager (public relations) of US-Bangla Airlines, told reporters.

“A record number of passengers from Bangladesh travel to Chennai for medical treatment. US-Bangla Airlines used to operate 11 flights a week on the Dhaka-Chennai route, but currently, it operates only six flights a week,” he added.

Most Bangladeshis travel to Kolkata and Delhi on tourist visas and Chennai and Hyderabad on medical visas. Besides, many people travel to different destinations in India for business, education and other reasons.

Targeting these passengers, Biman Bangladesh Airlines operated 28 flights weekly – two daily flights on the Dhaka-Kolkata route and seven flights each on the Dhaka-Delhi and Dhaka-Chennai routes.

At present, the national flag carrier operates only 13 flights to India a week—seven on the Dhaka-Kolkata route and three each on the Dhaka-Delhi and Dhaka-Chennai routes.

Talking to reporters, Boshra Islam, general manager (public relations) of Biman Bangladesh Airlines, said they have reduced the number of flights due to the decline in passengers over the past few months.

She said, “We now depend on the passengers travelling from India to Bangladesh and those travelling to India making Bangladesh a transit. Whereas we carried passengers with full capacity earlier, at most 50-70% of seats are now filled.”

Novoair suspended its flight operations on the Dhaka-Kolkata route on 16 September following a passenger crisis.

“Many people cannot go to India because of visa constraints. We have closed our flight operation on the Dhaka-Kolkata route due to the low number of passengers,” Mes-Bah-Ul Islam, head of Marketing and Sales at Novoair, said.

He also said they used to operate one flight daily but have dropped to three flights a week since 1 August.

“Once the situation normalises, we will resume flights to Kolkata,” the senior airline official added.

The number of foreign tourists in India increased to 43.5% in 2023. Bangladesh constituted more than 22.5%, representing the highest percentage of tourists from any country.

Some 20,56,880 Bangladeshi tourists visited the neighbouring country last year, which was 12,55,960 in 2022.