Dhaka: US-Bangla Airlines, Bangladesh's largest airline by fleet size, has launched a direct flight from Dhaka to Jeddah amid growing demand for flights to Saudi Arabia.
The inaugural flight was launched by Farooq Khan, Minister of Civil Aviation and Tourism, on Thursday evening.
“We launched the Dhaka-Jeddah route as part of our long-term expansion plan,” Kamrul Islam, the airline’s general manager, told Arab News.
“We are focusing on the Jeddah route, with the inclusion of Airbus in our fleet with a capacity of 436 seats. Insha Allah, in the coming days we will operate flights to other destinations in the Kingdom such as Riyadh and Dammam.”
Flights from Dhaka's Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport to Jeddah operate daily throughout the week using an Airbus 330 aircraft.
The airline is tapping into the growing Middle Eastern travel market, but flights to Saudi Arabia are too few to accommodate the demand of the country’s roughly three million Bangladeshi workers.
“There is a huge demand for flights from Bangladesh to Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries,” Islam said.
Bangladeshi workers in Saudi Arabia have been “demanding flights to Saudi Arabia for a long time, and with this Jeddah flight we are trying to meet their demands as well,” he added.
The plan will also provide services to the hundreds of thousands of pilgrims who travel to perform the annual Hajj and Umrah ceremonies.
“Since our first flight to Jeddah, we have started serving Umrah pilgrims. With the start of our Jeddah flight, we plan to also serve Hajj pilgrims in collaboration with Bangladesh’s national carrier Biman. This plan will make it easier for pilgrims to travel to the Holy Land,” Islam said.
Last year, demand for flights from Bangladesh to the Middle East was so high during the Hajj season that airfares skyrocketed, preventing many pilgrims from making the spiritual journey.
US-Bangla Airlines was founded in 2010 as a domestic airline and has recently expanded its international routes. It currently serves 13 destinations in 10 countries.
With the purchase of new Airbus A330 and Boeing 737 aircraft earlier this year, the airline has become the largest in Bangladesh in terms of fleet size.
With this addition, the US-Bangladesh fleet now has a total of 24 aircraft, while national carrier Biman has 21 aircraft.
