Turkish Airlines to resume flights from Bangladesh

After more than three months, Bangladeshi authorities have permitted Turkey's flag carrier to fly international routes from Dhaka airport, according to official sources.

"Turkish Airlines, as well as Air Arabia, can resume international flights from Bangladesh's capital Dhaka on any day after July 1 with proper maintenance of COVID-19 social distancing and health guidelines," Muhammad Mafidur Rahman, chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB), told Anadolu Agency late on Sunday.

He added that Turkish Airlines flights could carry Bangladeshi and Turkish nationals along with transit passengers who wanted to travel to other permitted countries via Istanbul.

The operation of the Turkish flag career had been suspended since March 21 in Bangladesh due to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus.

"We'll operate flights three days per week -- Sunday, Tuesday and Friday -- with approximately 232 passengers per flight, though the capacity of each flight was 300 passengers."

Before the COVID-19 outbreak, Turkish Airlines used to operate one flight per from Dhaka with almost 2,000 passengers weekly, according to Turkish Airlines' official records.

Bangladesh, a south Asian country of 165 million people, has so far recorded 1,783 deaths due to COVID-19 as of Monday, according to government tally, with total infections at 141,801.

Meanwhile, Abdullah Al Mohsin Chowdhury, a Defense Ministry secretary, died of the virus at the country's main military hospital in Dhaka Monday morning, the military's mouthpiece Inter-Service Public Relation Director Lt. Col. Abdullah Ibn Zaid confirmed to Anadolu Agency.