First test flight at New Islamabad airport tomorrow

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan International Airline (PIA) is all set to maneuver its first mock flight takeoff at the New Islamabad International Airport on Saturday (April 7).

The PIA management has decided to conduct the mock exercise of landing a passenger plane and handling the passengers’ check-in by its staff, crew members, customs, Airport Security Force, Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) and other relevant agencies.

PIA employees accompanied with their respective family members are invited to witness the mock check-in procedure before the grand opening of the airport on the 20^th.

On Saturday, a number of at least 250 family members of the PIA employees will be present as passengers to go through a mock boarding process. A PIA flight will land at the new airport as they’ll go through the security check, baggage scanning by ASF and search by ANF proceeding to the customs counter and then will receive their boarding pass.

PIA Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Musharraf Rasool Cyan will observe the mock exercise.

Located at 30km from Islamabad the construction on the new airport was started in April 2007.

The “Y” shaped new airport spreads over 19 square kilometers with 15 jetties (passenger boarding bridges), including facilities to accommodate two double-deck A380, the world’s largest airplane, 15 remote bays and seven remote bays for small aircraft such as ATRs. It will be the biggest international airport in the country in terms of landing and passenger handling facilities. For the 15 bays, the same number of lounges have been built to avoid mixing of passengers. The new airport has two runways each 3.5 km long.

The Airport will be officially inaugurated on April 20 for both regular domestic and international flights.

The old Benazir Bhutto International Airport control will be transferred to the new airport between April 19 and April 20.