154 Turkish nationals leave Dhaka by charter flight

A total of 154 Turkish citizens, who were stranded  in Dhaka due to COVID-19 pandemic left, the capital on Tuesday by a charter flight while the first special flight taking British visitors to London is set to depart this afternoon.

A chartered aircraft of Turkish Airlines left Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) for Ankara at 1:23pm with 154 Turkish citizens on board, HSIA Director Group Captain AHM Touhid-ul Ahsan told media.

The Turkish Airlines flight also brought back 20 Bangladeshi nationals, who were stranded in Turkey due to outbreak of coronavirus in its voyage from Ankara to Dhaka, Civil Aviation Authority, Bangladesh (CAAB) official sources said.

Meanwhile, the first special chartered flight of British Airways is set to leave Dhaka for London on boarding stranded Britons this afternoon.

“I am very conscious that the process for arranging these special flights has been less smooth than we might have wished,” British High Commissioner to Bangladesh Robert Chatterton Dickson said in a video message today.

Mentioning that there are three more flights to London later this week he said “…it is very important that we have a sense of the overall demand in Bangladesh for British visitors to return home.”

Besides, the 4th chartered flight for US citizens arranged by the US Department of State and US Embassy in Dhaka is also scheduled to leave HSIA this evening for Washington, D.C with stopovers at Kadena Air Base, Japan and Anchorage, Alaska.

Earlier, citizens of the USA, Canada, Australia, Japan, Malaysia, Bhutan and different European countries also left here by their personal choice through chartered flights amid outbreak of the deadly coronavirus, reports BSS.