FAISALABAD City News

Concern raised over suspension of PIA flights

From Our Correspondent

FAISALABAD: Faisalabad Industrial Estate Development and Management Company (FIEDMC) chairman Mian Muhammad Idrees Wednesday expressed concern over the suspension of three weekly PIA flights between Faisalabad and Karachi.

In a statement, he demanded immediate restoration of the flights. He said Faisalabad is the third largest city of Pakistan while people of its adjoining districts also prefer to travel from this international airport because of its proximity.

The FIEDMC chairman said Faisalabad is one of the major industrial cities of Pakistan which is also ranked second in revenue generation and because of its export potential, hundreds of exporters and importers daily travel to various destinations from this city. Similarly, the expatriates working in Middle East and other countries also use this airport for their routine travel.

He said despite huge potential of the city the PIA has always ignored it.

He said that on the pressing demand of FCCI, many international airlines have started their operation from Faisalabad and after their arrival, PIA also woke up from the deep slumber and it also started to en-cash the huge passenger load available in this metropolis.

He said initially PIA started two international flights: one from Faisalabad to Jeddah and another to Madina which are getting full load. In view of passenger load, PIA had to start another flight for Jeddah. Similarly, PIA was also operating one daily flight from Faisalabad to Karachi but due to unknown reasons, the three flights have been abandoned and now there are only four weekly flights on this important domestic route.

He said the PIA was also operating obsolete aeroplanes of old versions of ATR for this important route which are an open threat to the lives of passengers. He demanded an airbus for this route and the number of domestic flights should be doubled immediately with two daily flights, one in the morning and one in the evening.

Mian Muhammad Idrees also called for starting work on new proposed Faisalabad international airport with immediate effect so that after full colonization of M-3 industrial estate, the foreign investors as well as local exporters could make their journey comfortable without any wastage of time. It is also imperative so that wide-bodied flights could easily land on the airport.