The Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh will continue special flight operation for migrant workers on international routes for another week as the government extended the ongoing lockdown for another week.
The CAAB’s chairman Air Vice Marshal M Mafidur Rahman confirmed The Business Post of the decision on Monday.
He said that the international flights to and from Bangladesh as well as domestics flight would remain suspended for another week.
Special flights to Oman, Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Singapore are supposed to continue to ensure safe return of migrant workers to their work places, he added.
The CAAB chairman also said that they were examining possibilities to send transit passengers along with the migrant workers on special flights and also operating domestic flights on limited scale.
Any decision regarding these would come in a couple of days, he said.
Asked about the turning away of visit visa holders by the airport immigration, the CAAB chairman said that they were allowing visit visa only for migrant workers with clearance from Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training.
Earlier, the government imposed a strict lockdown from April 14 to April 21 and the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh suspended all international flights to and from Bangladesh for a week.
The week-long ban made the return of around 20,000 to 25,000 expatriate workers to their workplaces uncertain. Later, the government decided to operate special flights to five countries including Saudi Arabia and the move stumbled on the first day on Saturday as half of the scheduled flights were cancelled on the day.
