<div><span style="font-size: 1rem;"><b>Biman Bangladesh Airlines will resume direct flights to Italy’s Rome from Tuesday night.</b></span><br></div><div><br></div><div>“We are all set to resume the flight. As per our market analysis, the Dhaka-Rome-Dhaka route will be another popular one, like our London (UK), Toronto (Canada), and Narita (Japan) routes," said Biman MD and CEO Shafiul Azim.</div><div><br></div><div>The Dhaka-Rome-Dhaka direct flight is resuming after nine years prompting by large number of expatriate Bangladeshi community residing in Italy.</div><div><br></div><div>Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister M Faruk Khan will inaugurate the flight as the chief guest along with Italian Ambassador to Bangladesh Antonio Alessandro at 9:30 pm at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA).</div><div><br></div><div>The inaugural flight is schedule to depart Dhaka at 3:30am.</div><div><br></div><div>The decision to resume the flight was thoroughly assessed from a commercial standpoint while Bangladeshi expatriates in Rome have increased sevenfold since 2009, said the Biman CEO. </div><div><br></div><div>"The planning of Biman's route expansion to different cities in Europe is a reflection of Honourable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's commitment to the expatriate Bangladeshis," he said.</div><div><br></div><div>The Dhaka to Rome flight will be Biman's third European destination, as currently the national flag carrier is operating flights to London and Manchester.</div><div><br></div><div>After announcement of the Rome flight the visa applications to Italy has increased three folds, the Biman CEO said referring to the Italian Embassy in Dhaka.</div><div><br></div><div>Azim said he is also planning to use Rome as a stopover for Biman's Dhaka-Toronto-Dhaka flight, as currently the state-owned carrier is using Istanbul for refuelling its Canada-bound flight.</div><div><br></div><div>Bangladesh Biman initially began operating flights to Rome on April 2, 1981 and stopped on April 6, 2015, facing financial losses due to massive fuel consumption by the then DC-10 carrier.</div><div><br></div><div>Between March 27 and March 31, flight BG-355 will depart Dhaka every Monday,Tuesday, and Thursday at 2:00 a.m. local time and reach Rome at 7:00 a.m. local time.</div><div><br></div><div>From April 1, the flight will take off from Dhaka every Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday at 3:00am as per the summer schedule and arrive at the capital of Italy at 9:10am.</div><div><br></div><div>The flight will leave Rome at 10:45 a.m. and land in Dhaka at 11:45 p.m.</div>