to upgrade the terminal facilities to enable handling of international flights . The improvements include construction of a new terminal building, two Jetways and a taxi-way. In May 2007, the foreign affairs adviser, informed journalists that the works were on scheduled for completion in June 2007. He also confirmed that Biman will be operating Hajj flights directly from the airport during the Hajj season later in 2007. However, the runway expansion works had not been completed in June with the foreign affairs adviser indicating in August that "minor dressing work" still remained. The work was finally finished in December 2008. In 2010 the decision was made to construct a refueling station. Construction work began in January 2012. In January 2014 the Project Director Aminul Haq stated that the project was 70% complete. On 1 April 2015, Flydubai resumed foreign airline service to Sylhet with its flight from Dubai–International. Flydubai's introduction of nonstop flights from Dubai became the first international flights to Sylhet since the airport's "international" designation 18 years prior . The service was operated through a codeshare agreement with Bangladeshi airline Regent Airways. However, because Biman Bangladesh Airlines had refused to provide ground handling services, the route was cancelled the next day. Stranded passengers held a demonstration in response on 6 April 2015. In November 2016, Flydubai decided to start its flight again from Sylhet to the Middle East. This flight was ended on 7 September 2018 In November 2020, US-Bangla Airlines started operating flight to Muscat, becoming first Bangladeshi private airlines to operate international flights from Sylhet. On 12 November 2020, Biman Bangladesh Airlines started flight between Sylhet to Cox's Bazar, which was in a first, a direct flight between two domestic airports without any connecting flight from Dhaka. Later in March 2021, Biman started another direct flight between Chittagong and Sylhet, considering the demand of passengers for domestic tourism and commercial purposes. After completion of runway strengthening works (2021), the long standing demand for both outbound and inbound direct flights to and from the UK has been fulfilled. As of January 2022, Biman was operating 4 weekly roundtrip Dreamliner flights to London and 2 weekly roundtrip Dreamliner flights to Manchester, from Sylhet. These flights all originate and terminate in Dhaka. On October 24, 2022, Biman started operating a weekly flight from Sylhet non-stop to Jeddah. On November 1, 2022, Biman started operating a weekly flight from Sylhet