RAWALPINDI: The Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) is starting on Wednesday (today) its second phase of special flights to repatriate thousands of Pakistanis stranded in different countries due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The PIA has already partially restored its international schedule, chartered and cargo flights under special approval by the government and has repatriated hundreds of Pakistani nationals from different countries.

According to the flight plan chalked out for the second phase, the PIA will operate nine special flights from April 15 to 20 to and from Islamabad.

PIA spokesman Abdullah Hafeez said that the national flag carrier would operate a special flight from Karachi to Indonesia’s capital Jakarta on April 18. Two special flights will be operated to Toronto from Islamabad and Karachi on April 15 and 19, respectively.

The PIA will operate a special flight from Islamabad to Manchester on April 17/18.

Two special flights, PK-8852 and PK-8894, which had been planned to operate from Islamabad to South Korea’s capital Seoul on April 17, have been cancelled due to elections in South Korea.

A special flight will be operated to Dubai on April 17 to bring back stranded Pakistanis, while another flight of Boeing 777 will repatriate stranded Pakistanis from Jakarta on April 18.

The PIA will operate on April 20 a special flight, PK-784, from Toronto to Karachi to repatriate Pakistanis stranded in Canada.

The spokesman said people could contact their nearest PIA office, website or call centre for booking seats and Pakistanis stranded in different countries could also purchase tickets from Pakistan to travel back to their home country.

On the other hand, the government is considering making two other airports — Lahore and Peshawar — operational to share the burden of special flights’ passengers. The PIA has also made special arrangements to send foreign nationals to their countries.

Meanwhile, as many as 376 Pakistani prisoners released by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) government were repatriated to Pakistan via two special flights on Tuesday night.

According to a statement issued by the Pakistan Embassy, a special flight of Fly Dubai carrying 190 prisoners landed at Peshawar airport and the second flight of Fly Dubai with 186 prisoners at Faisalabad airport.

As many as 217 Pakistanis stranded in Bangkok arrived at Islamabad International Airport on Tuesday night. All the passengers were scanned at the airport and later shifted to hotels in Islamabad.

Published in Dawn, April 15th, 2020