TRIP REPORT: Domestic flying in Bangladesh. Dhaka-Cox's Bazar on Novoair
DAC-CXB-DAC
September 2019
Novoair
Before this trip -- well, don't worry, I'd never heard of Novoair either. It turns out that Novoair is a private, Bangladeshi airline, operating since 2013, that services several domestic destinations and one international port of call (Calcutta, just over the border.) It operates an entirely prop-based fleet -- ATR-72s, which Novoair's website reassuringly describes as "airworthy." In September 2019, I used Novoair for Dhaka-Cox's Bazar, and a return flight the next day. And the ATR-72 was in fact airworthy!
The morning began in Dhaka's minuscule domestic terminal. Check-in for domestic flights didn't begin until about 90 minutes before departure:
Check-in was quick -- we then proceeded through security, where the guard hit me up for a bribe (or as he called it, a "tip.") I declined -- he waved me through anyway.
Domestic departures on this Monday AM:
The domestic terminal is literally just one room -- though it does have a small cafe. (I had a Diet Coke -- they forcibly upsold me to two because they claimed not have change.)
