Lack of passengers forces Biman to cancel all 12 flights on 3 domestic routes

National flag carrier Biman Bangladesh Airlines today was forced to cancel all 12 flights on three domestic routes due to lack of passengers.

"We were forced to cancel all 12 flights scheduled for today as number of passengers was very low," Tahera Khandaker, deputy general manager, public relations, Biman, told The Daily Star.

She also said earlier on Monday, the national airliner also cancelled all flights except for two due to few passengers.

A Biman flight on Dhaka-Saidpur route on Monday took off with only four passengers on board while the return flight had 20 passengers, said Tahera.

Sources said Biman stopped selling air tickets of low slot price and the country's flag carrier is selling its ticket at Tk 7,000 as starting price while two private airlines -- US-Bangla and Novoair -- are selling tickets at around Tk 3,000 to Tk 3,200 as starting price.

That's why people are moving to the two private air operators, said the sources.

Apart from Biman, US-Bangla Airlines on Monday was forced to cancel its two flights on Chattogram route due to a small number of passengers, Kamrul Islam, general manager, (Public Relations), of the leading private air operator, told this correspondent.

Novoair, another private airline, however, was able to operate all seven scheduled flights to these three destinations from the capital yesterday.

Domestic flight operation was resumed yesterday on a limited scale on three routes from the capital after more than two months of suspension but saw poor passenger turnout.

Three local carriers -- Biman Bangladesh Airlines, US-Bangla Airlines and Novoair -- planned to operate 23 daily round trip flights: 11 on Dhaka-Chattogram-Dhaka, eight on Dhaka-Saidpur-Dhaka and four on Dhaka-Sylhet-Dhaka routes.

"Though we had to cancel two evening flights to Chattogram on Monday, we received a satisfactory number of passengers in our rest eight flights," said Kamrul Islam.

Beginning with its first post-shutdown flight to Syedpur at 7:15am, Novoair operated three flights each on Dhaka-Chattogram-Dhaka and Dhaka-Syedpur-Dhaka routes and one flight on Dhaka-Sylhet-Dhaka route.

"We have received on average 60 percent passengers on Monday for every flight after leaving 30 percent seats empty at our 72-seater ATR aircraft," said Mahfuzul Alam, Senior Manager, Marketing and Sales of Novoair.

Asked about today's condition, officials of US-Bangla Airlines and Novoair said they are operating flights on three domestic routes with 50 to 55 load factor.

"People are still panicked about travelling as the number of Covid-19 patients are increasing every day. That's why number of passengers are still low," said Kamrul Islam.

Meanwhile, CAAB Chairman Air Vice Marshal M Mafidur Rahman has thanked all passengers and airlines for following health guidelines, including the social distancing instructions, issued by his office.

He said CAAB inspectors were deployed at the airports to monitor whether the airlines and airline staff are following the health guidelines.

According to CAAB guideline, all airlines have to keep at least 30 percent seats vacant on each flight to ensure social distancing by keeping at least a gap of a seat between two passengers if they are not from the same family.

All airlines must disinfect the aircraft before boarding passengers every time while passengers' body temperature will be measured and they have to stand in queues in front of the check-in counters and in front of the boarding gates maintaining social distancing.

In flight, the cabin crew must wear N-95 or equivalent protection facial masks, goggles, disposable rubber gloves and change facial masks every four hours, said the guideline.