(MENAFN- Bangladesh Monitor) Dhaka: The coronavirus outbreak has hit the passenger load factor on Dhaka-China route severely as panic-stricken people have restricted trips to the source country of the virus.
Usually, US-Bangla Airlines, China Eastern and China Southern operate four direct flights daily to China from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) in Dhaka. On average, they carry 500 passengers a day, all operating with Boeing 737 with a capacity of 164.
The total number of passengers they carried from January 21 until February 12 would be 11,000 in 22 days.
With some other airlines like Dragon Air, Singapore Airlines, Thai Airways and Malaysian Airlines carrying transit passengers from China would be 700 daily.
However, things took a different turn after January 21.
Group Captain Touhid
Ahsan, Director, HSIA said the number of passengers who arrived from China from January 21 to February 12 was 8,200 and departure 5,500. On average, both arrivals and departures at HSIA were 12,000 daily, Ahsan added. He further mentioned that flight frequency from China has also declined since January 7.
"These are all assumption. The exact number may be slightly different. The immigration department has the actual record," he said.
Private carrier US-Bangla Airlines operates flights to Guangzhou in China. Kamrul Islam, General Manager – Public Relations, US-Bangla said that the passenger load to China was 30 per cent (40 persons on average) from January 21 to February 11, while the load was 80 per cent (118 persons) from China to Dhaka.
There were seven flights a week until the airline decided to cut flights to three weekly from February 13 to March 28, Islam added.
He further noted there is no impact on their flights to Chennai of India, Singapore, Thailand and Kuala Lumpur as most of the passengers are either workers or patients.
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