The authorities in Saudi Arabia approved the reinstatement of passengers and pilgrims from Umrah to Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) in Saudi Arabia on the demand of Pakistan until 17 March. Just to carry back those stranded in Saudi Arabia, the PIA will send its plane to Jeddah and Madina.
The Saudi authorities had suspended all flight operations from Pakistan to Saudi Arabia for two weeks starting from 15 due to the coronavirus threat. On Saturday, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) requested the Saudi Arabian authorities to allow PIA and the Saudi Airlines to operate their flights till March 25 so that the passengers could be transported to their destinations.
The PIA spokesperson has said that the aircraft already had a capacious seating capacity of 5,200 passengers, while for three days had 3,600 passengers booked up only.
All Pakistanis stranded in Saudi Arabia have been requested to contact their nearest PIA booking office so that they could be brought back before the deadline.
After a spike in Pakistan’s coronavirus cases, the Minister was briefed on precautionary steps taken by CAA.
He inspected the measures taken and talked to the health staff deputed there regarding the process of health screening of inbound passengers from international and domestic flights.
