In a decision that appears to be inextricably linked to impending military moves related to the Rakhine State, Bangladesh’s interim government is set to allow “limited international flight” operations at new terminal of the strategically important Cox’s Bazar airport from July, documents accessed by Northeast News reveal.
Critically, this go-ahead was given recently even though construction work is yet to be completed for the new terminal.
The decision includes temporarily stopping operations of all domestic flights at Cox’s Bazar airport and allowing international flights to land and take off on a “limited scale”.
The documents, however, do not say for what length of time domestic flight operations will be halted.
These decisions were taken at a meeting chaired by Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) Chairman Air Vice Marshal Md Monjur Kabir Bhuiyan on April 21.
The CAAB officials deliberated on a host of key issues, including an assessment of plans that envisaged completing the construction of the new terminal by June end.
Representatives of Biman Bangladesh Airlines, immigration and customs authorities and Airline Operators Committee had also attended the meeting.
It was publicly announced at that time the runway extension – an additional 1,700 feet built into the Bay of Bengal – will be completed by July end, bringing the total runway length to 10,700 feet (3.26 km).
Besides, CAAB officials said at that time the airport will be ready for international flights – of narrow-bodied aircraft – in July.
But the documents accessed by Northeast News suggest a pressing need to operate international flights on a limited scale beginning in June.
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This could be directly linked to operations conceived off by the Bangladesh defence establishment for facilitating the landing and taking off of international flights.
“The authorities appear to be pushing for advancing the time operationalisation of the new terminal by almost a month and at a time when issues related to the Bangladesh-Myanmar border are also in the process of being ironed out,” a senior official said.
