Air travel to Jashore, Barishal nosedives after opening of Padma Bridge

The launching of Padma Bridge has sharply reduced the demand for domestic flights on the Dhaka-Jashore and Dhaka-Barishal routes, spelling trouble for private airlines Novoair and US-Bangla Airlines.

This is because the reduced passenger traffic has compelled both airlines to cease flight operations in Barishal while the number of flights to Jashore has dropped to as few as one or two daily.

Additionally, Novoair has been forced to sell two of its ATR-72 turboprop aircrafts to Yeti Airlines, a leading domestic airline in Nepal.

"We decided to sell two of our seven aircrafts as the number of passengers on these two domestic routes has decreased by about 30 percent," Mofizur Rahman, managing director of Novoair, told The Daily Star.

The opening of Padma Bridge was pivotal in reducing passenger movement to and from Jashore and Barishal as people can now travel to these destinations within four to five hours, he added.

Besides, the cost of road travel is cheaper compared to airfares.

"Why will I choose to fly to Barishal when travelling by road takes almost the same amount of time while the fare is significantly less," said Monirul Islam, an official of a private company.

He explained that it usually takes about an hour to reach Dhaka airport, where passengers need reach at least an hour ahead of their flight's departure.

"So, taking flight time into consideration, the journey can take up to three-and-a-half hours," he added.

Officials of both airlines informed that the elimination of flights on the Dhaka-Barishal route was a result of repeated flight cancellations amid reduced demand.

According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, Jashore airport handled 34,228 passengers in May 2022, a month before the Padma bridge was inaugurated.

Then in June 2023, passenger movement at the airport reduced to 17,796.

For Barishal airport, the passenger movement stood at 12,113 in March 2022 before climbing down to 4,143 in June 2023.

A total of 932 flights were operated at Jashore airport in April 2022 while in June 2023, the number was 472.

For Barishal airport, a total of 256 flights were operated in April 2022 while the number was only 90 in June 2023.

At present, there are seven domestic airports in the country.

Previously, US-Bangla operated up to seven daily flights on the Dhaka-Jashore route and two daily flights on the Dhaka-Barishal route.

Now though, the airline is operating just two daily flights on the Dhaka-Jashore route.

Similarly, the number of flights operated by Novoair on Dhaka-Jashore route has fallen to one or two daily companied to nine previously.

"Air travel to Jashore has declined by about 80 percent. Earlier, we had a 90 percent load factor for all flights. But now, despite reducing flight frequency, we are getting just 65 percent capacity," said Novoair's Rahman.

He also informed that they could operate around 30 flights each day with a fleet of seven aircrafts.

"But now we cannot operate more than 15 to 20 flights in face of insufficient passengers," he said.

"I cannot keep my aircraft sitting idle as that too incurs costs. So, after getting a projection of the domestic market, we opted to sell two of our aircraft," Rahman added.

Apart from Novoair and US-Bangla, Biman Bangladesh Airlines has also decreased its flight frequency on the Dhaka-Jashore route, said Abul Bashar, station manager of Jashore airport, Biman, said.

But despite incurring loss, the national flag carrier is still operating flights on the Dhaka-Barishal route.

However, Biman did at one point suspend its flights on the route amid poor passenger movement, according to sources at the airlines.