BEIJING: The first flight of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) in six months arrived at Xian Xianyang International Airport on Saturday.

A PK-854 with 240 passengers on board left Islamabad International Airport this morning and landed in Xian at 16:48 local time. The same PIA aircraft will leave for Islamabad from Beijing Capital International Airport on June 12 (Sunday). All the passengers will undergo 14-day quarantine in Xian as per Covid-19 control and prevention measures imposed by the local government on the international passenger flights under the guidance of the joint prevention and control mechanism. Talking to APP, Muhammad Sabir Jan, a Pakistani manufacturer of dental and surgical instruments based in Beijing who was stranded in Pakistan due to the non-availability of PIA flights for China, expressed his great pleasure after arriving in Xian, China.

He informed that he went to Pakistan for a business trip in December last but could not return as no PIA flight was available for China due to the closure of Xian Airport following the Covid-19 control and prevention measures slapped by the Chinese authorities.

Sabir Jan, Founder and CEO, Sawuat Surgical Pakistan said that he was very excited to be in China and is looking forward to see his family members as well as friends in Beijing.

The national flag carrier resumed its weekly flights between Pakistan and China after the permission of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) to resume its commercial passenger flights between the two countries.

The PIA will operate a weekly passenger flight between Islamabad-Xian and Beijing-Islamabad routes.

As per the latest policy of Covid-19, all the passengers traveling from Islamabad to China were required to posses two PCR negative reports conducted within 48 hours from two different designated labs.