Home Latest News Pakistan Extends Domestic Flights Ban Till May 29

Pakistan Extends Domestic Flights Ban Till May 29

by Staff Report

File photo. Farooq Naeem—AFP

In Notice to Airmen, Civil Aviation Authority says cargo, special and chartered flights will be allowed to continue operations

The Government of Pakistan on Tuesday night extended, once again, the suspension on domestic flight operations as part of preventative measures designed to curb the spread of COVID-19.

In a posting on Twitter, the Civil Aviation Authority announced that domestic flight operations would remain suspended until midnight of Friday, May 29, 2020.

“As per the decision of the Government of Pakistan, the suspension of domestic flight operations as effected earlier has been extended upto Friday, May 29, 2020 at 2359 hours PST,” it said. “Remaining provisions as applicable to the suspension of domestic flights reflected in previous orders remain unchanged.” According to a subsequent Notice to Airmen, the CAA said that the ban did not apply to chartered, special, and cargo flights, which had already been declared exempt in an earlier notification.

Aviation Division spokesman Abdul Sattar Khokhar confirmed the extension in a press release.

Pakistan in March suspended all domestic and international flights operation till April 30 as part of lockdown measures to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. Subsequently, the ban on domestic flights was extended until May 7, then again till May 10, and then once more to May 13. The suspension has now been extended by another two weeks till May 29.

Aviation Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan had last week announced that the government was ready to resume domestic flight operations, but was awaiting final approval from Prime Minister Imran Khan. Reportedly, in a meeting of the National Coordination Committee, both Sindh and Balochistan had expressed reservations on allowing domestic flights, prompting the government to backtrack from its aim to resume them.

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