RAWALPINDI: The flight operation from Lahore and Faisalabad airports partially resumed on Sunday after four days of suspension.

From five other airports in the country, including the Sialkot airport, the flight operation is expected to resume on Monday.

According to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), Allama Iqbal Interna­tional Airport in Lahore began receiving and sending flights under restricted airspace at 6am on Sunday, while the flight operation from Faisal­abad Inter­national Airport began at 1pm.

The flight operation from airports in Sialkot, Multan, Bahawalpur, Rahim Yar Khan and Dera Ismail Khan is expected to be made operational on Monday.

Gilgit-Baltistan, Punjab and some parts of Sindh remained closed for flight operation on Sunday.

Over the past four days more than 400 flights and 25,000 passengers have been affected due to closure of airspace and the suspended flight operation. “The backlog of passengers is varying because some people have rescheduled their travel plans and others cancelled their journeys,” a spokes­person for the PIA said, adding that the airline had resumed its international and ­domestic operations.

According to an aviation official, all international airlines being operated from Gulf countries have begun sending their flights to Pakistan after four airports in the country were opened on Friday. Thai Airways has so far not resumed its operation in Pakistan because its flights fly over Indian territories.

The PIA spokesperson told Dawn that flights from Lahore to Karachi, Islam­abad and Muscat had been departing as per schedule while a flight for Dubai from the city would depart on Monday as per its schedule.

He said that after the airspace of Faisalabad was opened by the CAA on Sunday evening, PIA flights were operated from the city as per their schedule. He said PIA representatives contacted passengers on their telephone numbers in the booking information to inform them about the schedule of their flights.

Pakistan had closed its airspace at 12.30pm on Wednesday for international and domestic flights due to Indian aggression. Thousands of air travellers had been affected due to cancellation of flights.

Earlier, the CAA had is­­sued a NOTAM (notice to airmen) according to which airspace would be opened at 1pm on Friday, but a fresh notice was issued on Friday which suggested that the flight operation at four airports — Karachi, Peshawar, Quetta and Isla­mabad — would start at 6pm on March 1.

Published in Dawn, March 4th, 2019