PIA special flight carries 249 nationals from Saudi Arabia
- By Hassan Hafeez -
- May 15, 2020
LAHORE: A special flight of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) with 249 passengers on board landed at Lahore’s Allama Iqbal International Airport, ARY News reported on Thursday.
249 Pakistanis have returned home from Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh through a special flight landed in Lahore today. Four dead bodies have also arrived in Pakistan, whereas, all passengers were shifted to different isolation centres.
Upon the arrival of the flight of the national airlines, the dead bodies have been handed over the relatives by the airport authorities.
According to the airport’s administration, 43 passengers were shifted to Hotel One Garden Town, 50 to Kala Shah Kaku Hostel Campus, 50 to Virsa Hotel, 67 to OBAN Hotel and 21 to Pearl Continental (PC) Hotel.
Read: Fresh travel advisory eases quarantine restrictions on passengers
Earlier in the day, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) released a schedule of special flights for Saudi Arabia to repatriate citizens stranded in the kingdom.
According to the schedule, the first flight will take off from Lahore on May 14 (Thursday) for Riyadh to transport 250 countrymen.
The national flag-carrier will operate more special flights on May 16 for Makkah to bring back 250 passengers. The flight will land at Karachi airport.
Two more flights will be operated on May 18 and 21 from Faisalabad and Islamabad. The national airline is consistently serving the nationals trapped in foreign countries due to suspension of the flight operations following the spread of coronavirus pandemic.