Bangladesh: Three airlines leave for good

Oman Air, Bangkok Airways and Thai Smile shut down their Bangladesh operations last year as they found the route to be commercially unsustainable. The move has not only caused job losses of about 50 Bangladeshis but also revenue losses for the civil aviation authority and Bangladesh Biman that conducts the ground handling works at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, industry insiders said. Oman Air operated on Dhaka-Chittagong route for nearly a decade, but the Middle Eastern carrier suspended its operations from Chittagong in May last year and from Dhaka five months later. Bangkok Airways that spread its wings to Dhaka in 2011 suspended operations in November last year, and Thai Smile, the lower cost version of Thai Airways, in July, just after four months of operations. There are about 30 foreign airlines operating from Bangladesh. All the carriers are from Asia; no European or American airlines have operations here.<br/>