Dubai: GMG Airlines, Bangladesh's largest priv-ate carrier, is launching daily flights on Dubai-Dhaka sector from February 1, a senior official said, that is expected to meet the growing demand for additional capacity on the sector.
"Our first flight will land at the Dubai International Airport at 7pm on Friday, [February 1] and leave at 9pm, marking the beginning of a new chapter in our history," Virendra Nautiyal, GMG Airlines executive director, told Gulf News on Saturday.
The new flight timings will help the non-resident Bangladeshi community board the aircraft after the day's work and reach Dhaka before dawn for an onward connection.
Shahab Sattar, managing director of GMG Airlines, said his airline would add a second B747 to the fleet on April 1, to spearhead its Gulf operations. "We are now looking at starting flights to Abu Dhabi, Muscat, Doha, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, before starting services to European destinations," he said.
"We have been serving the domestic sector since 1998. The government granted us permission to start international flights, which changed the airline's operations and took us to a new level." This will be the first scheduled service by any Bangladeshi private airline to any destination in the Middle East.
Promotional rate
The airline is offering a promotional rate of Dh650 one way and Dh1,240 on return flights including a 50 kg baggage allowance with domestic connections to Chittagong, Sylhet and Jessore for free. The airline will operate a leased Boeing 747-300 aircraft with a capacity of 543 seats in a three-class configuration. This will be the largest aircraft to serve on the sector. Emirates airline serves the sector with Boeing 777-300ERs with nearly 400 seats.
Nautiyal said his airline is also targeting Nepalese and Indian expatriates from the northeastern part of the country, especially Kolkata.
"We have 18 weekly flights to Kolkata and four to Kathmandu. This will enable us to serve the Indian expatriates from West Bengal and neighbouring states and the Nepalese community who will have a convenient connections through Dhaka international airport," he said.
Emirates serves Kolkata with direct flights while Royal Nepal Airlines and Etihad serves Kathmandu non-stop from Dubai and Abu Dhabi respectively.
Dubai: GMG Airlines, Bangladesh's largest priv-ate carrier, is launching daily flights on Dubai-Dhaka sector from February 1, a senior official said, that is expected to meet the growing demand for additional capacity on the sector.
