First Hajj flights from Sylhet Nov 29, 30
National carrier Biman Bangladesh Airlines will operate, for the first time, two direct hajj flights from Sylhet on November 29 and 30.
The flights by DC-10 aircraft will carry 301 pilgrims each. The return flights are scheduled on January 10 and 11, official sources said yesterday.
However, about 2200 pilgrims from Sylhet are expected to perform Hajj this year, an official of Hajj Association of Bangladesh said yesterday. Of them about 2100 will travel by biman.
After the recent development works including strengthening and extension of the runway, a wide-bodied DC-10 with 275 passengers from Dubai landed at Osmani International Airport at 11:25am Friday. Dropping 168 passengers, the craft departed for Dhaka at 12:25pm.
Passengers, including several bound for London and other destinations boarded the return flight from Sylhet.
Some development works of Osmani International Airport under a Tk 138 crore project are yet to be complete.
However, with completion of the works on the runway, operation of fully loaded wide-bodied crafts like DC-10 and Boeing-747 is now possible at the airport.
Earlier on March 12 of 2006, operation of a wide-bodied aircraft was inaugurated on London-Dubai-Sylhet route the authorities later stopped it on the grounds of insufficient area and unfit runway.
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