Pakistan International Airlines, the national flag carrier of Pakistan, on Tuesday flew its 30 nationals back to their country who had been stranded here due to the prevailing travel restrictions imposed in view of the COVID 19 pandemic.
As per the source, the special passenger’s repatriation flight from the national airline of Pakistan, an airbus A320 ‘AP-BLW” aircraft Flight No. PIA8268 took off from Jinnah International Airport at 06:17 AM under command of Capt. Tariq Basir Alam and Capt. Ammir Hussain Shah has landed at Tribhuvan International Airport at 09:30 AM to evacuate those stranded. The aircraft had directly flown to Kathmandu and returned with transit at Dhaka.
PIA had obtained permission from the respective Civil Aviation Authorities in the nations of its route to operate these special flights on May 11.
The PIA has been operating special flights to repatriate Pakistani nations in different parts of the world. It said the special flights are being operated as part of measures taken by the Government of Pakistan to bring back Pakistanis stranded overseas.
The returnees will be handed over on-arrival to health authorities, armed forces, and other relevant institutions, for necessary procedures including disinfection and quarantine.
The PIA crews will observe all health regulations when operating these flights such as wearing PPE kits and disinfection of aircraft and personnel.
Since March 21, Pakistan has stopped regular and charter flights with other countries as part of the government’s plan to stem the spread of the coronavirus which has claimed 667 lives and infected over 30,000 people in the country.
It is not the very first time PIA is flying to Nepal from Karachi. PIA had started flights to Kathmandu in 1997 after Nepal and Pakistan signed bilateral aviation agreement in 1995 and had been operating daily flights from Karachi to Kathmandu. In November 2014, the national flag carrier of Pakistan stopped its flights to Nepal.
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