Airlines Business Eyes Potency of D-8 Migrant Workers

Dhaka, Bangladesh | December 02, 2007 by D-8 Secretariat

UAE-based RAK Airways started operations in Bangladesh on Thursday hoping to cash in on the increased flow of Bangladeshi workers to the Middle East, reports the Bangladeshi newspaper the Daily Star.

“Traffic from Bangladesh has increased in recent days mainly due to increased flow of Bangladeshi workers to the Middle East,” said SAK Ekramuzzaman, chief executive of Mohammed Aviation, the general sales agent of RAK Airways in Bangladesh.

The airline will operate on Dhaka-Ras Al Khaimah-Dhaka route three times a week, he said.

Ekramuzzaman said about 40,000 Bangladeshis now live in Ras Al Khaimah, the northern Emirate in the UAE.

“I believe it will not only carry overseas workers but also create scope for increased economic co-operations between the two countries,” he said.

The RAK Airways is the last entrant in Bangladesh’s aviation market.

In September, the government approved open sky policy for three airports of the country for the next three months to ease the air travel problems of Bangladeshi nationals, especially for those who have awarded jobs in Malaysia and the Middle East.

The ailing state of Bangladesh Biman, which suffers from aging fleets, poor service and delays in flights, also encouraged many airlines to enter Bangladesh market, industry experts said.

RAK Airways started operations in March 2007.

D-8 Director, Amb. Kia Tabatabaee welcomes this expansion as an encouraging news for D-8 aviation industry. He said that D-8 is very keen to develop its airlines business such us low-cost carrier, and have already put that on its top agenda in the D-8 3rd Working Group on Civil Aviation, in December 2007, in Istanbul, Turkey. “We are also going to bring this topic to the D-8 Working Groups on Migrant Workers, Remittances, and Microfinance which will be held in Bangladesh next year in March,” he said in his office on Monday.

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