Defence ministry provides details of 10 inactive airports to NA

ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Defence has presented the details of 10 non-operational airports across the country in the National Assembly (NA).

In response to a question from MNA Sophia Saeed Shah, Defence Ministry in a written reply that 10 airports across the country are completely non-operational.

The non-operational airports include Khuzdar which is closed since 2002, Muzaffarabad which is closed since 2006, Rawalakot which is closed since 2006, Bannu which is closed since 2002, Parachinar which is closed since 2002, Jiwani which is closed since 2004, Omara which is closed since 2010, Sehwan Sharif which is closed since 2010, Sibi which is closed since 2010 and Dera Ismail Khan since 2021.

A staff of 2 officers and 65 personnel are deployed at these non-operational airports. The staff deployed at the inactive airports are being paid more than Rs12.5 million per month in terms of salaries.

Regarding operations of private airlines on secondary routes, it is to highlight that as per National Aviation policy 2023, all scheduled carriers are required to, allocate 5% of their capacity, floated on primary routes on at least one secondary route/airport.

In this regard, three private airlines have been found to infringe standing instructions of the policy, Resultantly, PCAA served show cause notices to these airlines and, afterwards, found it appropriate to issue fitting penalty orders for not operating on secondary routes.

Nevertheless, it is pertinent to add that flight operations on a particular route directly depend on available passenger/cargo demand. The PCAA would continue to press airlines to operate smaller routes.