CHITRAL: The Pakistan International Airlines failed to resume a weekly flight from Islamabad to Chitral on April 5 due to poor passenger response.

Last month, the national flag carrier widely publicised the flight resumption after suspension for five years. However, the plan didn’t materialise as “very few” people purchased tickets.

Despite flight suspension and zero revenue, PIA has maintained a heavy establishment at the city office, including two senior officers-district sales manager and finance officer-for five years.

Some frequent travelers insisted that one or two weekly flights on the route won’t succeed, as if they’re canceled due to inclement weather, passengers would have no choice but to wait until the next week.

Local businessman Fakhre Alam said daily flights and early flight timings were crucial for attracting passengers to the route.

He said until 2010 when daily flights were operated, there used to be a lot of passengers and one had to wait for a long time for a seat, while the exclusion of Peshawar from the route was another significant reason for failure.

Mr Alam said the Islamabad-Peshawar-Chitral route was a popular one as Peshawar had a sizeable population of Chitralis compared with Islamabad, while the number of government officials and NGO employees was also higher.

He also said that the old flight timing of early morning suited the operation of flights because clouds developed fast soon after sunrise, but currently, the airline had scheduled flights for late afternoon when clouds often overwhelmed the valley, especially over Lowari Pass.

Residents cited high fares as another reason for low seat occupancy on flights.

They said the 32-minute flight from Islamabad to Chitral cost around Rs15,000, while PIA charged nearly the same amount for a two-and-a-half-hour flight to Karachi.

SUICIDE: A young man died by suicide here on Monday afternoon.

Waliur Rehman of the Terich area in Upper Chitral district jumped into the Chitral River near the Chew Bridge to take his own life. He had reportedly been suffering from psychological issues since his return from Oman last year.

The body was recovered by Rescue 1122 personnel, who handed it over to the deceased’s family after it underwent postmortem at the DHQ hospital.

Published in Dawn, April 8th, 2025