Air services between Bhutan and Bangladesh can be significantly increased

Air services between Bhutan and Bangladesh can be significantly increased under a new agreement signed this week.

The updated agreement allows daily flights between Bhutan and Bangladesh. It also allows the use of any airport situated in either country by airlines belonging to both countries. The new air agreement also allows national airline Drukair to connect Bangladesh with other countries besides Thailand.

Currently, Drukair operates three flights to the capital city, Dhaka, with two of these flights also connecting Dhaka to Bangkok, Thailand.

Drukair CEO Tandin Jamso said that, “as of now”, the airline would not be adding more flights to Dhaka. But he pointed out that, with increasing passenger traffic between Bhutan and Bangladesh, the airline is studying the financial viability of increasing flight frequency. He said that tourist arrivals from Bangladesh have been increasing. He also said that the airline will be studying potential routes that could be operated from Dhaka.

Passenger traffic between Paro and Dhaka increased by more than 100 percent in 2010, when compared to 2009. The airline carried 5,840 passengers in 2010, and 2,897 in 2009 between Paro and Dhaka. The airline has already flown more than a thousand passengers on the route this year.

Drukair will have the option of flying to any airport in Bangladesh. The country has three international and seven domestic airports.

The updated air services agreement comes a week after Bhutan and Maldives also signed an air agreement, allowing flights between the two countries.

Meanwhile, Drukair’s pilot project of operating between Paro-Mumbai, India, commenced with 100 Indian tourists arriving in Paro yesterday. The national airline will fly charters to Mumbai once a week until the end of June. It will also operate a weekly charter to Delhi as part of the project.

India’s largest online travel agency, “http://makemytrip.com/”makemytrip.com, is a partner in the project. The tourists are paying between Nu 40,000–50,000 for a weeklong stay in Bhutan.

While Drukair is looking to explore and expand its market in India, “http://makemytrip.com/”makemytrip.com officials said that more work would have to be done by both the company and the tourism council of Bhutan in India to attract more Indian tourists to Bhutan. Drukair’s passenger traffic on its India sectors increased 26 percent in 2010, compared to the previous year.

Source: Kuenselonline