Flying to Dhaka has become tougher with a third airline in two months grounding service to the neighbouring city.

The Dhaka-based GMG Airline, which operated two flights to Dhaka and one to Chittagong daily with around 200 seats, withdrew operations from Calcutta on March 30.

Kingfisher had grounded its Calcutta-Dhaka service in February and Air India Express, the low-cost carrier of Air India, last month.

The back-to-back withdrawal of the three airlines has almost halved the number of seats on the route from around 600 in January. Aviation industry sources say more than 350 passengers fly daily between Calcutta and Dhaka, quite a few of them using the Bangladeshi capital as stopover for journeys to various southeast Asian or even European destinations.

“We are in the process of restructuring the airline and transforming our business and current fleet with new aircraft. We will resume our services later in 2012.... During this period of suspension, ticketed passengers will be given full refund,” Shilpa Bhatia, director, commercial of GMG, has written to tour operators. “We plan to use this temporary suspension of operations to accelerate our transition to a new business model and fleet.”

Following GMG’s exit, there are only three airlines operating between Calcutta and Bangladesh — Jet Airways and Biman Bangladesh, which fly daily, and the Dhaka-based United Airways, which operates five days a week.

Air India Express was operating three days a week on the Dhaka-Calcutta-Singapore route with a 178-seat aircraft. “We had to withdraw the flight because of operational reasons. The service, however, will be reintroduced,” said an Air India spokesperson.

Kingfisher, which flew daily between Calcutta and Dhaka with an ATR aircraft, “suspended operations indefinitely” on all domestic and international routes from the city.

“The spate of withdrawal of international flights from the city is sending out negative signals about Calcutta airport at a time it is set to have a new terminal. Only a handful of flights are now operating on international routes from the city,” said Anil Punjabi, the chairman (east) of the Travel Agents Federation of India.

Punjabi feared that a dip in competition following the series of suspensions would push up fares on the Dhaka route.