The US-Bangla Airlines, the country’s largest private carrier in terms of fleet size, Monday spread its wings to Dubai as its 10th international destination.

The inaugural flight operated by 164-seat Boeing 737-800 aircraft departed Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) at 6:30 pm carrying 140 passengers.

Civil Aviation Authority, Bangladesh (CAAB) Air Vice Marshal M Mofidur Rahman officially inaugurated the at the International Terminal Building of HSIA by cutting a cake.

CAAB’s member (operations and planning) Air Commodore Md. Khalid Hossain, member (flight standard and regulations) Group Captain Chowdhury M Zia ul Kabir, HSIA Director Group Captain AHM Touhid-ul Ahsan and US-Bangla airlines Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Captain Sikder Mezbahuddin Ahmed were also present.

The carrier will initially operate daily flight on Dhaka-Dubai-Dhaka route while the minimum fare for the economy class has been fixed at Taka 54,999 for one way and Taka 73,000 for round trip including all taxes and surcharges of the route.

US-Bangla Airlines plan to operate flights to various destinations in the Middle East to serve the expatriate Bangladeshis while the carrier has already decided to run flights to another United Arab Emirates (UAE) city, Abu Dhabi in addition to Dubai soon, a press release of the carrier said here.

Currently, the airlines operate flights to Muscat, Doha, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Kolkata, Chennai and Guangzhou and plan to operate flights to Male and Colombo, shortly.

Besides, the airlines also operate flights to all seven domestic routes – from Dhaka to Cox’s Bazar, Chattogram, Sylhet, Saidpur, Jashore, Rajshahi and Barishal.

US-Bangla Airlines has a total of thirteen aircraft in its fleet, including 4 Boeing 737-800, 6 brand new ATR 72-600 while the carrier has a plan to add four more new aircraft.

BK