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Gulf Today Report

Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has announced it would operate special flights to bring back stranded Pakistanis ahead of Eid Al Adha.

The national flag carrier will bring back the Pakistanis from Kabul via Boeing 777 planes on Monday and on July 16.

Similarly, PIA has announced it would operate total 32 flights of Boeing 777 to airlift Pakistanis stranded in Gulf countries.

Similarly, the airline has announced 10 flights of Boeing 777 to Saudi Arabia for the purpose and eight flights of Airbus-320 to Tashkent.

Likewise, the airline will operate special flights to bring back Pakistani students stranded in Bishkek.

Meanwhile, it was reported that the PIA and other private airlines have hiked the fares by over 100 per cent ahead of Eid Al Adha.

 According to sources, prior to the hike, the airlines were charging Rs7,000 fare for passengers travelling between Karachi and Islamabad or Lahore.

However, they said that the fares have now been hiked by 114 per cent for domestic flights. 

The hike has been witnessed nearly a month after the PIA announced it would reduce its fares for domestic flights by 40 per cent on June 12.

According to a PIA spokesperson, the national flag carrier has introduced special discounted rates for domestic flights during summer vacations.

The PIA spokesperson said that reduced fares had been introduced by the national carrier for flights from Karachi to Islamabad, Lahore, and Peshawar.

The one-way fare from Karachi to Islamabad, Karachi to Lahore, and Karachi to Peshawar had been reduced to only Rs6,950.
According to the PIA spokesperson, the new fares will come into effect immediately.

Earlier, the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) has said that unvaccinated people will not be allowed to travel by air starting from Aug.1.

The NCOC also declared it mandatory for adult students to get vaccinated by Aug.31.

Coronavirus was detected in China in December 2019 and then started spreading to other countries. Pakistan had closed its borders and took a number of steps to stop the transmission of the virus. The first case of COVID-19 was reported in the country in the last week of February 2020.