PIA flight carrying 250 stranded Pakistanis departs from Australia

MELBOURNE: A special flight of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) carrying 250 stranded Pakistanis in Australia left Melbourne on Sunday, ARY News reported.

Pakistan High Commission in Canberra along with its consulates in Sydney and Melbourne coordinated their return. Consul General of Pakistan, Melbourne, Sardar Adnan Rashid saw off the stranded Pakistanis at the airport.

The stranded Pakistanis thanked the Pakistan government for arranging their repatriation to the homeland.

The same PIA flight, PK-8963, had landed in Melbourne on Saturday for the first time in history with more than 300 passengers on board.

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.

On April 22, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) had decided to operate 53 special flights from next week to facilitate Pakistanis stranded abroad.

It must be noted that more than 11,700 nationals have been brought back to Pakistan through 104 special flights.

Read: PIA allowed to partially restore flight operations to UK

The PIA spokesperson said in a statement that the nationals returned home through PIA special flights operated in Saudi Arabia, Canada, France, Turkey, Japan, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and United Kingdom (UK).

The national flag-carrier is still continuing special flight operations to bring back more Pakistanis trapped in foreign countries following the suspension of flight operations due to coronavirus pandemic.