DHAKA, Jan 7: State-run Biman Bangladesh Airlines will resume direct flights between Dhaka and Karachi from January 29, restoring nonstop air connectivity between Bangladesh and Pakistan after more than a decade, officials said on Wednesday.
“Initially, flights will operate twice a week, on Thursdays and Saturdays,” Bengali daily Prothom Alo reported, quoting a press release issued by the airlines.
The flight will depart Dhaka at 8:00 pm local time and arrive in Karachi at 11:00 pm. The return flight will depart Karachi at 12:00 midnight and arrive in Dhaka at 4:20 am, it said.
The development comes amid growing bonhomie between Bangladesh and Pakistan following the fall of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s regime in 2024, with Dhaka and Islamabad taking steps in recent months to rebuild diplomatic, trade and people-to-people ties after years of strained relations.
Though the shortest route between Dhaka and Karachi is through Indian airspace, it is not immediately known whether Bangladesh has secured the necessary clearance from New Delhi for overflight permissions.
Quoting Biman officials, news portal tbsnews.net reported discussions with Pakistani regulators had been ongoing for several months to reopen the Dhaka-Karachi route, which last saw direct operations in 2012.
The re-launch follows formal approval from the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority, which has cleared Biman to operate on the route and to use designated air corridors within Pakistani airspace, the officials said.
Plans to restart direct flights between the two countries were first announced in August last year during the visit of Pakistani Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar to Dhaka.
Dar’s Dhaka visit was the first such high-level engagement between Pakistan and Bangladesh in over a decade. (PTI)
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