RAWALPINDI: As many as eight international and domestic flights were delayed at the new Islamabad International Airport due to power breakdown on Wednesday.

Besides, escalators and elevators were not working due to the power shutdown forcing hundreds of passengers to take the stairs with their luggage.

According to airport authorities, the power outage, which began 9.25 am, also caused problems in handling passengers’ security check.

Airport Deputy Manager Raja Azhar told Dawn that they had generators but it took time to start them due to which some problems emerged during power outage.

He said: “It takes time to switch over power supply to generator which caused some problems. However, immediately after the generators were switched on, the passengers’ pressure decreased gradually.”

The Airport Security Force scanning machines were also hit by the breakdown as passengers and their baggage were manually checked which caused problems to the security staff as well as to the passengers.

Spokesman for Pakistan International Airline Mashood Tajwar told Dawn that the departure and arrival of as many as eight flights of national flag carrier were delayed.

Published in Dawn, May 17th, 2018