PIA special flight departs for Australia

LAHORE: A special flight of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has departed for Australia to bring back Pakistanis, ARY News reported on Friday.

The spokesperson of the national flag-carrier said that a special flight has departed for Melbourne for the first time in the history with more than 300 passengers on board.

The aircraft, PK-8963, will also repatriate stranded Pakistanis from Australia on April 26.

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, said the spokesperson.

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

Read: PIA allowed to partially restore flight operations to UK

According to details, the flights would be operated for Algeria, Khartoum, Nairobi, Oman, Zurich, Amsterdam, Turkey and Jeddah to bring the Pakistani citizens.

The PIA asked the passengers who were unable to travel to Pakistan from these destinations due to suspension of flight operations amid COVID-19 pandemic to contact the airline’s call centre and provide their local numbers for coordination.

The numbers would be used to inform the passengers regarding booking procedures, flight suspension and others details pertaining to changes made in the flight operations.