KARACHI: All airports in Pakistan reopened for flight operations today after the ceasefire between Pakistan and India, but a backlog of flights continues to cause delays and cancellations.
According to a Private TV channel, 150 flights were cancelled nationwide today. Jinnah International Airport in Karachi saw 45 cancellations, Allama Iqbal International Airport in Lahore had 38, and Islamabad’s Benazir Bhutto International Airport reported 40 cancellations. Of these, 138 were international services.
Operational issues also led to the cancellation of 10 flights in Multan, 11 in Peshawar and six in Sialkot.
Despite the cancellations, domestic and international services from Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad are largely back in service. Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) continues its scheduled flights to Gulf countries, though several Karachi departures were called off and others left late.
From Islamabad, flights to Dubai and Quetta are expected to depart later this afternoon. In Karachi, a PIA flight bound for Medina departed on time, and two PIA flights to Islamabad left as scheduled. However, numerous private airline services from Karachi were cancelled.
Since the truce, flights from Dammam, Medina and Jeddah have started arriving in Karachi again. Lahore has seen five departures to Medina, Dubai and Karachi, and flights to Baku and Mashhad remain on schedule.
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Over the past three days, rising tensions with India led to repeated suspensions and resumptions of air operations under a series of NOTAMs issued by the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority. Though Pakistan’s airspace reopened fully yesterday, airlines and passengers are still grappling with the after-effects of the disruptions.
