DHAKA, June 3, 2020 (BSS) – A total of 404 more US citizens left here today by a chartered flight while the US embassy has arranged the final dedicated flight to New York on Friday for its nationals and permanent residents who are stranded in Bangladesh amid flight suspension due to COVID-19 pandemic.
“A chartered flight of Qatar Airways left Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) for USA at 6:30 pm carrying 404 passengers – 390 adults and 14 infants,” spokesperson of Civil Aviation Authority, Bangladesh (CAAB) told BSS.
The flight carrying the US citizens, mostly expatriate Bangladeshis
residing in the USA permanently, will reach at John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens, New York via Doha, Qatar, while the passengers will remain on the aircraft in Doha.
Today’s flight is the first ever US chartered flight from here with destination to New York as earlier, all US repatriation flights went to Washington DC from HSIA since the global outbreak of novel coronavirus.
Meanwhile, the US embassy said they have arranged another dedicated flight for US citizens and their families from Dhaka to New York on Friday.
“The Embassy is not planning any additional flights after this flight,” said the US mission here in a note on its official website.
The note said that the US embassy in Dhaka will e-mail their American citizens who have already registered their interest on embassy’s website (https://bit.ly/35bbXtW) with a link to Qatar Airways’ booking site for this flight.
“We urge U.S. citizens who wish to return to the United States to take advantage of this opportunity or be prepared to remain in Bangladesh until commercial flights resume,” said the US embassy.
On March 30, the first batch of 269 stranded US citizens left Bangladesh by the first chartered flight of Qatar Airways while on April 5, 322, on April 13, 328 and on April 21, 301 US citizens departed Dhaka by chartered flights for the USA.
Other countries, including India, the UK, India, Japan, Canada,
Australia, Turkey, Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea, Bhutan, Myanmar and
different European countries also operated several special chartered flights
amid the flight suspension to repatriate their citizens from here.
Bangladesh also repatriated stranded Bangladeshis from different other
countries including the USA, Canada, the UK, Australia, Thailand, Singapore
and Malaysia.
On May 25, Bangladesh extended the ongoing ban on flight operation for the
seventh consecutive time till June 15 over the coronavirus fear while it resumed flights on domestic routes on June 1.