Bangladesh and Pakistan have re-established direct air traffic after a 14-year hiatus, opening up new opportunities for strengthening trade, tourism and people-to-people ties between the two countries.
Biman Bangladesh Airlines announced that the first direct flight on the Dhaka-Karachi-Dhaka route, designated as BG-341, took off from the capital of Bangladesh at 20:00 local time on Thursday.
The ceremony on the occasion of the resumption of flights was attended by the adviser of the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism of Bangladesh Sheikh Bashir Uddin, the Pakistani High Commissioner in Dhaka Imran Haider, and the heads of Bangladesh’s civil and military aviation institutions.
Direct flights, as part of the winter flight schedule, will be operated twice a week – on Thursdays and Saturdays. A Boeing 737 aircraft with a capacity of 162 passengers will cover the distance of 1,471 miles in approximately three hours.
Flights between Dhaka and Karachi were suspended in 2012 due to security concerns. However, relations between the two countries began to normalize after the political changes in Bangladesh in August 2024.
The resumption of flights follows intense diplomatic contacts and high-level visits, including Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar’s historic visit to Bangladesh last year – the first in 13 years.
Biman Bangladesh Airlines states that the tickets for the inaugural flight are sold out, while most of the seats for the next flight are already reserved, which indicates the strong interest of passengers.
