Several flights at Karachi’s Jinnah International Airport and Lahore’s Allama Iqbal International Airport were delayed, besides closure of several sections of the motorways for vehicular traffic, due to foggy conditions on Monday.
According to details, at Karachi’s Jinnah International Airport, a flight ER-540 of a private airline to Quetta was delayed for five hours and rescheduled to fly at 1:00 pm. Another flight, ER-502, of a private airline to Lahore took off from the airport at 9:00am after a one-hour delay.
The Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight, PK-302, delayed for an hour which was going to depart for Lahore. PIA’s flight to Islamabad, PK-300, was delayed for 45 minutes and another flight of a private airline to Jeddah, SV-707 was delayed for 1.5 hours.
At Lahore’s Allama Iqbal International Airport, four flights have been cancelled and 10 others were delayed due to dense fog and technical issues.
An Airblue flight, 416, was delayed which was scheduled to depart for Dubai. A PIA flight 306 from Karachi to Lahore was cancelled. The national carrier’s flight number 302 was rescheduled to 11:00pm to transport passengers from Karachi to Lahore.
A Lahore-bound flight from Istanbul, 714, arrived at Allama Iqbal International Airport after being delayed. Moreover, several other flights from Dubai to Lahore were delayed. Another flight of PIA, 303, was delayed till 12:00 noon to depart for Karachi from Lahore airport.
Meanwhile, fog has engulfed the plains of Punjab and Sindh causing poor visibility and closure of several sections of the motorways for vehicular traffic. The fog has engulfed plains in Punjab and Sindh causing visibility problems due to which M-V motorway from Multan to Sukkur has been closed for traffic, a spokesperson of the motorway police said.
Several other sections of the motorway were closed due to poor visibility, as motorway M-IV was closed from Faisalabad to Shamkot, motorway M-III from Faizpur to Abdul Hakeem, while traffic at Multan to Khanewal motorway section was suspended due to thick fog causing poor visibility in the area.
According to reports at most of the highways the visibility was as low as 100 meters. Thick fog engulfed Multan, Sahiwal, Harappa, Cheechawatani, Mian Channu and Khaniwal. Meanwhile the fog also caused visibility problems at Tabba Sultanpur, Zahir Pir, Lodharan, Bahawalpur, Khanpur, Shahkot, Ahmadpur East, Rahim Yar Khan and Sadiqabad.
The motorway police spokesman has advised the people to avoid unnecessary travel and use fog lights in vehicles during travel.