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 evening.

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

The authority hailed the escape as “a new chapter” in relations 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 departed for Karachi, the first scheduled flight since 2012.

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

“We had been waiting for such an 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 fly twice a week.

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

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

In the same period, relations between Bangladesh and Hasina’s old ally India have cooled.

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

Trade has increased since then and cultural ties have grown, with popular Pakistani singers performing in Dhaka, while Bangladeshi patients have traveled to Pakistan for medical care.

With additional from AFP