Several hundred passengers, mostly migrant workers, could not fly to their destinations due to flight disruption at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on Friday and Saturday.
The sudden disruption of flights pushed them in uncertainty over their job while they faced huge sufferings in arriving at the airport during curfew across the country.
On Friday, the government imposed curfew to control protests across the country for quota reform which so far killed over 150 protesters in clashes.
Civil Aviation Authority Bangladesh officials said that a total of 11 flights were cancelled in the past two days, including three flights of Saudia.
Civil aviation minister Md Faruk Khan said that flight operation resumed on Sunday on all the domestic and foreign routes.
He urged passengers to reach the airport at least three hours earlier to fly to their destinations.
Airport officials claimed that the flights were cancelled due to Microsoft鈥檚 flight data record server disruption.
They said that the check-in and check-out system in the airport was taking additional time due to internet shutdown that delayed some flights but it was still working.
On Sunday, 154 flights were scheduled to be operated at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, CAAB officials said.
Over 800 Saudi-bound migrants staged demonstration in front of Saudia Airlines office in the capital鈥檚 Karwanbazar as the airlines cancelled their flights without any prior notice and even did not give any reschedule for the passengers.
Md Al Amin, a passenger of Saudia Airlines said that his flight SV 809 of the airlines was scheduled at 2:05pm on Friday.
Accordingly he reached the airport five hours earlier for boarding the plane to reach his workplace in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
When he queued for checking, Saudia officials informed him about the cancellation of the flight and asked him to come at 10:00pm on the day.
As he went on time, the officials asked him to go back home because they were not operating the flight. They did not confirm the flight changed flight schedule.
鈥業 came from Brahmanbaria spending Tk聽7,000,鈥� he said on Sunday noon in front of Saudia office.
Many migrant workers said that they were in fear of losing their job because of visa date expiry.
Md Ariful Islam from Cumilla said that he was scheduled to fly on Saturday as his visa for KSA would expire on Tuesday.
鈥業 am not sure whether I will be able to join my job timely,鈥� he said with fear of losing job if he misses the deadline.
Arif came to Saudia airline office to settle the issue. The airlines authorities, however, did not confirm him anything as yet.
Md Akter Hossain, a migrant who came home to celebrate vacation four months back said that his visa date would expire on Thursday. His flight was at 2:15am on Saturday.
鈥業 am frustrated and unhappy with Saudia Airlines. They created sufferings for me, uncertainty over my job,鈥� said Akter, who migrated 24 years ago.
Saudia Airlines sales manager Zahidul Abedin was contacted for comment but he did not respond phone calls. While the reporter visited the office asking comment, they denied making any comment.
