ISLAMABAD: Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has yet to decide when it will resume commercial flights operations to Afghanistan, a PIA spokesperson told Business Recorder.
He said, “Most of the things to be decided (including regular flight operations, the number of flights and air travel cost, etc).
PIA is keen to resume regular services, but it is too soon to say how frequently flights between the two capitals would operate.
Sources said that NOTAM (Notice to Airmen) makes insurance cost impossible for commercial operations which is another factor.
Aviation insurers are unwilling to insure commercial flights into Afghanistan because of the risk of attacks on airport, the sources said.
The Kabul airport is not fully operational for international flights though, chartered flights of Qatar Airlines had flown out US, German, Afghan, and other citizens from the airport last week.
The airport is only receiving international flights carrying humanitarian aid and the domestic flights have been resumed since early September in Afghanistan, the sources said.
On Monday, PIA ran its first commercial flight to Kabul since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in mid-August.
The PIA flight-PK 6429 - took foreign journalists to Kabul and returned with a team of World Bank and international media organisations, Radio Pakistan reported.
At that time, PIA Chief Executive Officer Air Marshal Arshad Malik said this flight operation is very important for PIA and the entire world.
He also expressed the hope that the flight operation would soon be fully restored.
Pakistan’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has yet to take a decision on the request of Civil Aviation Ministry of Afghanistan for permission of two of its airlines to begin commercial flight operations.
In a letter sent by the Ministry of Aviation and Transport of Afghanistan to Pakistan’s CAA on September 13, it requested Pakistani authorities to permit air operations of two national carriers of Afghanistan on the basis of the memorandum of understanding signed between the two countries.
On August 22, PIA had temporarily suspended flights between Kabul and Islamabad due to lack of facilities and heaps of garbage on the airstrip in a bid to avoid any tragic accident.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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