Technical fault at Sialkot airport causes international flights to reroute

SIALKOT: After a reported fault in runway edge lights of Sialkot airport on Wednesday the oncoming flights scheduled to land here have been rerouted to Lahore Airport, ARY News reported.

The international flights including one en route to Sialkot from Muscat, MS-301, has been detoured to land on Lahore airport as well.

Another flight of Pakistan International Airlines PK-9244 arriving from Dammam, too, was rerouted today to Lahore’s Allama Iqbal Internation Airport.

The reason behind both the detours was reported to be the technical fault of runway lights, ARY News learned from sources who added that both these flights will return for Sialkot as soon as the lights have been restored.

READ: 7000 PIA employees will be voluntarily laid off: Ghulam Sarwar Khan

Separately, federal aviation minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan said Tuesday the Civil Aviation Authority of Pakistan will satisfactorily compensate PIA employees being laid off voluntarily.

Federal Minister Ghulam Sarwar said while PIA requires only seven thousand employees to operate, it employs over 14,000 currently due to the politically influenced recruitments in the past by ruling parties.

He said out of 14,000 currently employed, half will have to be let go of via Voluntary Separation Scheme (VSS) and those will be compensated.