RAWALPINDI: Hundreds of passengers have been facing inconveniences and delays at the new Islamabad International Airport for the second day on Friday due to technical difficulties in the operation of a new system for air ticket reservations.

Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) had launched a new system for ticket reservation on Wednesday and had switched to services provided by a Turkish company, Hitit Computer Services.

The airline staff will be using Hitit’s Crane Solutions for reservations, inventory control, ticketing and check-in procedures, flight operations, scheduling, revenue management, accounting and crew management.

According to sources, the airline staff has been unable to operate the new system properly due to technical difficulties, causing problems for air travellers and delays in some flights.

Staff handled the check-in procedure and passenger handling manually on Friday.

PIA spokesperson Mashood Tajwar told Dawn some flights were delayed due to the new IT system and that efforts were underway for removing the problems.

“Some of the flight delays are due to other reasons, such as the weather,” he said, adding that the airline has requested passengers to cooperate in case of any inconvenience and contact the airline’s call centre.

Published in Dawn, September 15th, 2018