Passengers suffer as PIA flight delays for five hours

PESHAWAR: The passengers suffered as the domestic flight of Pakistan International Airline (PIA) to Karachi was delayed for almost five hours on Saturday.

The Karachi-bound PK-351 flight of the national flag carrier was scheduled to take off from the Bacha Khan International Airport (BKIA) at 8:20am in the morning for its destination.

The passengers, who had come to the airport two hours before the flight schedule, were shocked to know that the flight was delayed and would now take off at 11am.

The PIA officials continued to provide false information to the passengers about the taking off the flight.

The passengers said that they were told that the flight would take off at 10, then 11 and then 1:00pm.

They said that the plight could not even take off at 11:00pm and they were made to wait but there was no sign the flight would take off in the coming few hours.

They said the PIA officials told them that the pilot of the plane was not feeling well and the aircraft has also developed some fault and would take off as soon it was repaired.

They said that no one was providing authentic information to the passengers about the real cause of delay in the scheduled flight.

The passengers said that the PIA officials should have informed the passengers in advance about the delay in the flight and shared information about the exit timing of the rescheduled flight to avoid inconvenience to them.

The passengers protested the indifferent attitude of the PIA that did not provide them autistic information about the cause of delay in the flight.

They said that no announcement usually made as pre-boarding announcement or any information was displayed on the flight information screen or any massage was conveyed to the passengers that when the flight would take off.

An official of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) told this scribe that the delay in flights of the PIA has become a routine and the authority was bearing the brunt as delay in flights created hurdles for it to calm down the situation and prevent inconvenient to domestic and international passengers.

When contacted, Mashood Tajwar, spokesperson for PIA, said that a PIA plane carrying passengers from Abu Dhabi to Karachi was scheduled to bring the passengers from Peshawar to the port city.

He said that the flight PK-218 was delayed for five hours. “This plane brought passengers from Abu Dhabi and was assigned to fly to Peshawar,” he added.

He said that the plane took off at 1pm from the Bacha Khan International Airport in Peshawar. “The flight from Abu Dhabi to Karachi was delayed for almost five hours, which delayed the PK-351 flight from Peshawar to Karachi,” Mashood Tajwar said.

He said that information was shared with the passengers about any change or delay about a scheduled flight.