KARACHI: Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has urged its passengers not to pay an additional amount to confirm their tickets to Saudi Arabia.

According to PIA spokesman, the airline has published the fares and if any passenger was asked to pay an additional amount to confirm tickets, report the matter to care@piac.aero.

He said that PIA had been operating regular flights to Saudi Arabia but there was an unusual rush as most of the “Aqamas”/ residence permits are going to expire by September 30.

Keeping the issue in view, PIA has asked the Saudi government to allow 28 more flights from September 15 in addition to the regular flights.

However, the permission to operate only 13 flights was granted by the Saudi authorities with the restriction not to carry more than 66% of the passengers to maintain the social distance.

He said that these flights were half of the total demand but the airline was striving to manage this limited capacity in an efficient manner.

Moreover, he said that PIA and the Aviation minister also approached the Foreign ministry to take up the issue with Saudi officials and asked them to allow more flights or extend the expiry date of “Aqamas”/residence permits.

PIA spokesman further said that the airline would firstly entertain those passengers, whose “Aqamas”/residence permits were expiring on September 25 and urged the passengers, having valid “Aqamas”/residence permits till September 30 to approach PIA office or agents after September 25.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020