Osmani Airport (, ) in Sylhet, Bangladesh, is the third largest airport in Bangladesh after Dhaka and Chittagong. The airport is operated by the Civil Aviation Authority, Bangladesh (CAAB) and is served by Biman Bangladesh Airlines, the national airline, which at one point earned most of its revenue from this airport. Private airlines Novoair and US-Bangla Airlines operate domestic flights to Dhaka. History Osmani International Airport was built during the British rule of the Indian Subcontinent, partly to check Japanese aggression from Burma . The airport was formerly known as Sylhet Civil Airport but was renamed after General M A G Osmani, Commander in Chief of Independence War of Bangladesh as well as of Muktijuddho in 1971. The airport was initially served by domestic flights from Shahjalal International Airport by the country's national airline Biman Bangladesh Airlines . After many years of lobbying by expatriates living in the UK, limited expansion of the airport was carried out to enable medium-sized aircraft, such as the Airbus A310 used by Biman, to operate . The work was completed in October 2002 and the airport was designated an international airport by the government . However, the airport was not up to international standards to be capable of fully accommodating international flights due to many shortcomings with the instrument landing system and runway lighting system, and the designation was seen as a move to stave off pressure by the government. Nevertheless, on 3 November 2002, the airport received its first international arrival . Biman flight BG020 from Kuwait via Abu Dhabi landed at 10:05 with 215 passengers en route to Dhaka. The disembarking passengers on the inaugural flight were greeted by then Finance & Planning Minister, M Saifur Rahman and State Minister for Civil Aviation and Tourism, Mir Mohammad Nasiruddin . For a brief period, Biman also operated a direct service from London but was later re-routed via Dhaka. Additional expansion of the runway and improvements to the runway lighting and airport facilities were commenced in 2004 to enable wide-bodied aircraft to safely land and takeoff from the airport. The South Asia Transport and Trade Facilitation Conference report of 2006 (by the United States Trade and Development Agency) noted that the development of the airport "up to the standards of [an] international airport" to "encourage private sector participation in air transport" were projects that were under consideration by the government. Work started in 2006