Biman Bangladesh Airlines will start operating Dhaka-Rome flights from March next year, said Biman MD and CEO Shafiul Azim yesterday.

He was speaking at a dialogue organised by the Aviation and Tourism Journalist Forum of Bangladesh at the Biman Training Centre in Dhaka.

Mohammad Salahuddin, director (marketing) of Biman, said, "We discontinued the Dhaka-Rome flight after 2009. Now it will be resumed, for which GSA has been appointed, and ground-handling has been finalised."

"We can either operate direct flights to Rome, Italy or via another country. We are studying [about] it. It will take 9-10 hours for a direct flight to reach Rome," he said.

For possible transit points, he mentioned Kuwait or Dubai. However, nothing is finalised.