DHAKA, Bangladesh — Bangladesh and Pakistan are restoring nonstop air service between their largest cities after Islamabad cleared Biman Bangladesh Airlines to start Dhaka-Karachi direct flights late this month, officials said. The reopening comes as the two countries ease official travel through a visa-waiver deal and build on a surge in cross-border commerce, Jan. 4, 2026.
Pakistan’s Civil Aviation Authority has issued Biman an initial three-month authorization to operate the route, and the airline is targeting a Jan. 29 start date, Arab News reported. It would be Biman’s first flight to Karachi since 2012. Biman spokesperson Boshra Islam said the carrier is finalizing schedules and other operational details ahead of the first flight.
Dhaka-Karachi direct flights: what passengers should know
Bangladesh’s High Commissioner to Pakistan, Iqbal Hussain Khan, said the carrier plans to operate three flights a week to Karachi once service begins. “Yes, we are starting direct flights with Pakistan. Our national airline will operate three weekly flights to Karachi,” Khan said in comments carried by Geo News.
For now, the Dhaka-Karachi direct flights remain in a test window that runs into late March, and airlines still must publish schedules and open bookings. Bangladesh outlet bdnews24.com reported that Biman will have to share full flight details with Karachi airport authorities in advance and stay on designated routes while transiting Pakistani airspace.
The route is expected to significantly cut travel time for families, students and business travelers who have relied on one-stop itineraries via hubs such as Dubai or Doha. Biman officials have also said the shortest path between Dhaka and Karachi requires overflight clearance through Indian airspace, a process the airline says it has been working through as it prepares to launch.
Visa waiver and trade surge set the backdrop
The diplomatic reset gained traction in August, when Bangladesh and Pakistan approved a five-year visa waiver for holders of diplomatic and official passports, The Daily Star reported. The agreement does not cover ordinary passports, but it has eased travel for delegations as both sides pursue broader economic cooperation.
Trade has climbed alongside the diplomacy. Pakistan’s high commissioner in Dhaka said bilateral trade rose about 20% in the last fiscal year to roughly $865 million, based on central bank figures cited by The Financial Express.
A stop-start route, years in the making
Nonstop links have been fragile before. Pakistan International Airlines, which operated the only Dhaka-Karachi direct flights in recent years, suspended its Dhaka service in 2018 after alleging mistreatment of staff and passengers, Gulf News reported at the time.
Talk of reopening the corridor resurfaced as relations warmed, with envoys publicly discussing a return of flights from Islamabad and Karachi to Dhaka in early 2025, Arab News reported in January 2025. A month later, Bangladesh’s civil aviation authority cleared Pakistani budget airline Fly Jinnah to move ahead with a Karachi-Dhaka route, TRT World reported.
Trade ties also started moving more directly in 2025, when Bangladesh resumed government-to-government trade with Pakistan for the first time since 1971 through a 50,000-metric-ton rice purchase, Reuters reported.
For now, officials on both sides are framing Dhaka-Karachi direct flights as a practical test of the wider rapprochement: a route that, if sustained, could turn diplomatic gestures into regular travel and steadier trade.
