Majority of the international flights connecting to Dhaka started shunning the Pakistan airspace from Wednesday as situations between India and Pakistan remained highly volatile and evolving.
Three international flights of Turkish Airlines, Jazeera Airways and Kuwait Airways, all bound for Bangladesh, made detours on the day.
There were few delays in the morning, said the officials of the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka.
Officials at state-owned Biman Bangladesh Airlines said that their Middle East-bound flights were slightly delayed throughout the day.
A press release issued from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport said that three international flights had changed their destinations as the airspaces of India and Pakistan were considered unsafe following the Indian missile attacks in the bordering regions of Pakistan in the early hours of Wednesday.
The Turkish Airlines鈥� Dhaka-bound TK-712/713 flight from Turkey diverted to Muscat International Airport in Oman, bypassing Pakistan airspace.
Jazeera Airways鈥� 531/532 flight was diverted to Dubai and the 533/534 flight returned to Kuwait instead of continuing to Dhaka.
The release added that the diverted flights started arriving at the airport from Wednesday morning normally as air traffic conditions gradually stabilised.
Hazrat Shahjalal Airport executive director Group Captain Muhammed Kamrul Islam in a message sent on Wednesday around 8:30pm said that all flight operations were normal at that time while there were few delays in the morning.
鈥楢t present we do not have direct flight from Pakistan,鈥� he said, adding, 鈥榟owever the Middle East or Europe routes are having detour routes, causing one to two hours delay.鈥�
Biman Bangladesh Airlines general manager (administration and human resources) ABM Raoshan Kabir said that they were operating flights by avoiding the airspace of Pakistan.聽
Replying to a question if they were facing any problem in operating Hajj flights, he said that detours were causing the Middle-East bound flights to take an extra around 30 minutes.聽
Private airlines, US-Bangla Airlines, also operate flights on Bangladesh-Middle East routes. Its general manager (public relations) Md Kamrul Islam said that they operated flights to the Middle East by two routes鈥擬umbai and Karachi.
鈥榃e are avoiding the Karachi route now,鈥� he added.
