Turkish Airlines wants to add three weekly flights on the Dhaka-Istanbul route, taking its schedule from seven services a week to ten, under a proposal put to the government at a meeting in the Secretariat.
Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister M Rashiduzzaman Millat welcomed the request. The Turkish delegation was led by Ambassador Ramis Şen and included commercial counsellor Bilal Belyurt and country manager İslam Güre.
The minister used the meeting to press for more than additional Dhaka slots, urging the carrier to open direct services from Chattogram and Sylhet. Both airports serve regions with substantial numbers of people working abroad, and both currently require passengers to connect through Dhaka for most long-haul routes.
Bangladesh’s international travel market handles more than one crore passengers a year. The third terminal at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport is expected to ease the capacity limits that have constrained new slots in Dhaka.
Turkish Airlines has been flying to Bangladesh since December 2010, when it began with four weekly services routed via Karachi. It moved to a direct Dhaka-Istanbul operation on March 25, 2012, initially at four flights a week.
Talks also covered tourism and investment. The government is developing 1,498 tourism sites through public-private partnerships, and the minister invited Turkish investors to take part. Both sides discussed making visa procedures easier for Bangladeshi travellers.
Istanbul functions mainly as a connecting point for Bangladeshi passengers heading to Europe and North America, which is where the demand for additional frequencies largely comes from.
