Biman Bangladesh Airlines resumed its flights on the Dhaka-Barisal route yesterday after a suspension of nine years.

Rashed Khan Menon, civil aviation and tourism minister, inaugurated the flight by cutting a ribbon at the airport in Babuganj upazila.

Delivering a short speech at the airport, Menon said he fulfilled his promise to resume Biman flights from Barisal as soon as new aircraft would be available for it.

Abdullah Al Jacob, deputy minister, and lawmakers Advocate Talukdar Md Yunus and Shawkat Hasanur Rahman were among the incoming passengers.

Khalilur Rahman, Barisal office manager of Biman Bangladesh, said a fully occupied 74-seat Dash-8 Q-800 plane took off from Dhaka and touched Barisal Airport at 4:47pm.

It left Barisal for Dhaka at 5:49pm with 58 passengers.