Air Sylhet plc was founded in early 2007, by British Bangladeshi

British Bangladeshi

A British Bangladeshi is a person of Bangladeshi origin who resides in the United Kingdom having emigrated to the UK and attained citizenship through naturalisation or whose parents did so; they are also known as British Bengalis...

 businessmen from the Sylhet region

Sylhet Division

Sylhet Division , also known as Greater Sylhet or Sylhet region, is the northeastern division of Bangladesh, named after its main city, Sylhet...

 of Bangladesh

Bangladesh

Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...

. Air Sylhet AG is a wholly owned Austrian airline

Airline

An airline provides air transport services for traveling passengers and freight. Airlines lease or own their aircraft with which to supply these services and may form partnerships or alliances with other airlines for mutual benefit...

 and subsidiary of the plc which provided flights to Amritsar

Amritsar

Amritsar is a city in the northern part of India and is the administrative headquarters of Amritsar district in the state of Punjab, India. The 2001 Indian census reported the population of the city to be over 1,500,000, with that of the entire district numbering 3,695,077...

 from Birmingham Airport with a technical stopover at Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

.. Air Sylhet had obtained traffic rights to Jeddah

Jeddah

Jeddah, Jiddah, Jidda, or Jedda is a city located on the coast of the Red Sea and is the major urban center of western Saudi Arabia. It is the largest city in Makkah Province, the largest sea port on the Red Sea, and the second largest city in Saudi Arabia after the capital city, Riyadh. The...

, Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...

.

History

Air Sylhet plc is a registered UK public limited company

Public limited company

A public limited company is a limited liability company that sells shares to the public in United Kingdom company law, in the Republic of Ireland and Commonwealth jurisdictions....

 with plans of floating on the AIM

Alternative Investment Market

AIM is a sub-market of the London Stock Exchange, allowing smaller companies to float shares with a more flexible regulatory system than is applicable to the main market....

 stock market in 2009, and has received investment over £1m primarily from the UK Bangladeshi community. Air Sylhet AG is a wholly owned subsidiary of Air Sylhet plc and obtained its Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

n AOC and Operating Licence on the 29 May 2008. Formal notice of its AOC and OL has been published in the Official Journal of the European Union

Official Journal of the European Union

The Official Journal of the European Union is the official gazette of record for the European Union . It is published every working day in all of the official languages of the member states. Only legal acts published in the Official Journal are binding.It was first published on 30 December 1952 as...

 (2008/C 178/15)

Operation started on 4 April 2009 using a wet-leased Boeing 757-200

Boeing 757

The Boeing 757 is a mid-size, narrow-body twin-engine jet airliner manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Passenger versions of the twinjet have a capacity of 186 to 289 persons and a maximum range of , depending on variant and cabin configuration...

 from Gadair European Airlines

Gadair European Airlines

Gadair European Airlines was an airline based in Madrid, Spain. It was operating aircraft on ACMI leases for services to five continents. A number of changes of plan have been made, including a switch to Bahrain as the main hub.-History:...

, however, the route was suspended after just one month.

Akal Air (a trading style of Air Sylhet) who only started up on the 4th April 2009, have now suspended their services to Amritsar (via Vienna) until further notice. While they had hoped to operate through the low season - and indeed add a stop in Vienna (Austria) in the current economic climate this has not proved to be viable.

The permissions from Indian Civil Aviation, required for operating these charter flights were not forthcoming. Mr Daljit Singh Birring who claims to be the Chairman of Akal Air, the trading style of Air Sylhet for operating flights to Amritsar.

The small 30 years old aircraft (which was leased from Gadair monthly cost £85,000) operated twice weekly flights to Amritsar, for not making the monthly payment, the aircraft has taken by Gadair in Madrid.