PIA mock flight lands at new Islamabad airport

ISLAMABAD: The first mock flight of the Pakistan International Airline (PIA) landed at the new Islamabad International Airport here on Saturday.

PK-9001 departed from the Benazir International Airport at 1:00pm and landed at the new Islamabad airport around 1:30pm.

The flight was scheduled to take off at 12:30pm but was delayed as the boarding process of some PIA pilots and their families who were on board the flight took longer than expected, a private news channel reported.

PIA Chief Executive Officer Musharraf Rasool observed the mock exercise.

The new Islamabad airport will be inaugurated formally on April 20 for regular international and domestic flights.

According to details, the new airport, which is designed as Y shape, spreads over 19 square kilometres with 15 passenger boarding bridges; it includes facilities to accommodate two double-deck A380, as many as 15 remote bays and seven remote bays for small aircraft.

The new airport will become the country’s biggest international airport for its frequency of landing and the number of passenger handling services.