Biman Bangladesh Airlines plans to fly direct between Dhaka and Toronto from October under an air service agreement with the Canadian government.

"We hope to launch the flight in the winter schedule," said Biman Managing Director and CEO Mokabbir Hossain, reports bdnews24.com. From Toronto, the passengers will also be able to travel to New York in the US via Air Canada under a renewed deal between Biman and Air Canada, he said.

The flag carrier initially plans to operate three flights to Toronto a week. The then civil aviation and tourism minister Faruk Khan said Bangladesh had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Canada for the flight following the recommendations by the parliamentary standing committee on the ministry in 2013.

In 2017, the then civil aviation minister Rashed Khan Menon discussed the issue with the Canadian high commissioner in Dhaka, but the flight was not launched.Mokabbir, the Biman CEO said they were planning direct flights to Japan as well."We want to make Dhaka a travel hub. We are making the schedule in such a way that the flights will be operated between Dhaka and New Delhi, Kolkata, Kathmandu and Bangkok in four hours."

Air connectivity between countries are reopening after months of suspension due to the coronavirus pandemic.Bangladesh is operating flights to only the UK and China now, among 17 international destinations.Transit passengers can travel from Dhaka to Qatar. Biman will begin direct flights to Dubai and Abu Dhabi on Monday.