The United Airways resumed its operation on Saturday with a Dhaka-Syedpur flight after a three-day suspension following an amicable solution to the crisis.
"The Syedpur-bound flight of the United Airways left Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HASIA) at 7:15am on Saturday," Kamrul Islam, Deputy General Manager of marketing support and public relations of the airlines told The Financial Express.
A total of six flights, four on domestic and two on international routes, left the airport for their respective destinations on the day. The domestic flight operated on Dhaka-Syedpur, Dhaka-Jessore, Dhaka Sylhet and Dhaka-Chittagong routes. While the international flights operated on Dhaka-Chittagong-Kolkata and Dhaka-Jeddah routes. All the flights left the airport (HASIA) on time.
The airlines suspended all its flights on Wednesday for an indefinite period, after the airline's new board failed to come up with plans to keep it afloat.
The decision to resume operation came yesterday after a five-hour-long closed-door meeting of the board at the Uttara residence of immediate past chairman and managing director Tasbirul Ahmed Chowdhury. The crisis was resolved on Friday when Tasbirul Ahmed Chowdhury consented to take over his earlier charges at the request of the present chairman and the MD.
Tasbirul had stepped down on Monday from the post of chairman and managing director following internal conflict and he was reinstated as the MD of the carrier yesterday.
All of them have reached a consensus and an agreement was signed among them.
Tasbirul Ahmed Chowdhury, who served the airlines as the chairman and MD since its inception in 2007, agreed to resume his responsibilities, considering "the interest of the airways, its passengers and 138,000 shareholders," said flight operations director M Eliash while talking to The Financial Express after the meeting.
The sudden flight suspension of the United Airways caused sufferings to its passengers. Some 2,300 to 2,400 inbound and outbound passengers got stranded.
Set up in 2007, the lone listed airlines has 11 aircraft -- two Airbus 310-325s, five MD-83s, three ATR 72s and one DASH-8 100. It was operating domestic flights to Chittagong, Sylhet, Jessore, Cox's Bazar, Rajshahi, Saidpur and Ishwardi. On the international routes, it was flying to Dubai, Kuala Lumpur, Kathmandu, Kolkata, Jeddah, Bangkok, Muscat and Singapore.
mzrbd@yahoo.com
