Staff Reporter:
Prime Minister Tarique Rahman is expected to inaugurate Cox’s Bazar International Airport in the first week of November, Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister M Rashiduzzaman Millat said yesterday.
“We have already discussed the inauguration of Cox’s Bazar International Airport with the Prime Minis-ter. We hope to secure his schedule in the first week of November,” he told journalists at the Secretariat.
The minister was speaking ahead of a meeting with representatives of different airlines on launching in-ternational flight operations from the country’s premier beach destination.
Millat said the inauguration date will be announced once the Prime Minister’s schedule is confirmed fol-lowing Prime Minister’s return from Japan in the last week of this month, he said.
The minister said the government was also holding discussions with domestic and international airlines to determine potential international routes from Cox’s Bazar.
He said representatives and country heads of different foreign airlines were attending the meeting to ex-plore opportunities for launching international services from the airport.
“We will discuss the matter with the airlines and initially identify the countries to which international flights could be operated from Cox’s Bazar,” Millat said.
He added that decisions regarding the airlines and destinations would be finalised following consultations with the concerned stakeholders.
The planned inauguration will mark a significant step towards establishing direct international air con-nectivity with Cox’s Bazar, one of Bangladesh’s major tourism destinations.
