Taliban govt approaches India for starting commercial flights

ISLAMABAD: The Islamic Emirate Afghanistan (IEA) civil aviation authority has written to India’s Civil Aviation director general asking for permission for Afghan national carriers to restart scheduled commercial flights between the two countries.

The sources said it’s the first known official communication from a government entity in Kabul to their counterpart in India since the takeover by IEA in August. India does not officially recognise the government, even though an initial contact was made in Qatar last month. All commercial flights were halted on August 15, when the Taliban walked into Kabul after Afghan president Ashraf Ghani fled the country, leading to the collapse of the government. For two weeks, Kabul airport was the epicentre of evacuation flights, which stopped after the last US soldier left Afghan soil on August 31. Dated September 7, the letter is signed by acting civil aviation minister Alhaj Hameedullah Akhunzada of the new administration. He had been the head of Ariana airlines during the first Taliban regime. “As you are well informed that recently the Kabul airport was damaged and dysfunctional by American troops before their withdrawal.

By technical assistance of our Qatar brother, the airport became operational once again and a NOTAM in this regard issued on September 6, 2021,” wrote Akhunzada to the DG Civil Aviation in India, Arun Kumar. Akhunzada goes on to say: “The intention of this letter is to keep the smooth passengers movement between the two countries based on the signed MoU and our National Carriers (Ariana Afghan Airline & Kam Air) aimed to commence their scheduled flights. Therefore, Afghanistan Civil Aviation Authority requests you to facilitate their commercial flights”. “The Civil Aviation of Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan avails its highest assurance,” it concluded. Currently, regular international flights in to and out of Afghanistan are only being operated from Iran and Pakistan. Besides, there have been special flights from UAE, Qatar, Turkey and Ukraine.

Two weeks after this letter was dispatched, the Taliban’s foreign ministry had issued a press statement calling on all foreign governments to resume international flights from Kabul airport.