Flights with Bangladesh resume after 14 years

KARACHI:

Direct flights between Bangladesh and Pakistan resumed on Thursday after more than a decade, with the first Biman Bangladesh Airlines landing at Jinnah International Airport on Thursday night.

In a statement, Pakistan Airports Authority (PAA) said the Bangladeshi airline returned to Karachi after 14 years and received a traditional water cannon salute upon landing.

The authority hailed the flight as “a new chapter” in the relationship between the two countries.

Since 2012, travelers between Bangladesh and Pakistan have had to use connecting flights through Gulf hubs such as Dubai and Doha.

On Thursday, national carrier Biman Bangladesh Airlines left for Karachi, the first scheduled flight since 2012.

Mohammad Shahid, one of the 150 passengers on board bound for Karachi, said he was happy to be able to travel more frequently than before, when he could only make the trip once every two or three years.

“We were waiting for this opportunity because we travel continuously,” he told AFP in Dhaka.

“There are so many people waiting in Pakistan to come here, and some waiting here to go there.”

Direct flights will now operate twice a week.

Biman said in a statement that its resumption would “play an important role in promoting trade, expanding educational exchanges and fostering cultural ties between the two countries.”

Ties with the Muslim-majority nation of Pakistan have strengthened since a student-led revolt in Bangladesh toppled Sheikh Hasina in 2024, ending her 15-year autocratic rule.

Over the same period, relations between Bangladesh and India, Hasina’s former ally, have grown frosty.

Cargo ships resumed sailing from Karachi to the key port of Chittagong in Bangladesh in November 2024.

Trade has increased since then and cultural ties have increased: popular Pakistani singers perform in Dhaka, while Bangladeshi patients travel to Pakistan for medical care.

With additional AFP