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       CHITRAL: Pakistan International Airlines will resume its flights to Chitral from Islamabad from April 5 initially on a weekly basis after a gap of about three years.

       An official at the PIA’s district sales office told Dawn that the ATR-72 flight would land at Chitral airport at 10am on April 5 and depart back for Islamabad after two hours.

       The people of Chitral have, however, expressed their displeasure over the PIA’s decision to operate only a weekly flight, and demanded daily flights keeping in view the growing demand of people.

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       Former MNA Maulana Abdul Akbar Chitrali has said the PIA management was indifferent to the needs and ground reality of the area as there had been a persistent demand of operating daily flight on the Islamabad-Peshawar-Chitral route.

       In a statement issued here on Tuesday, he said the route was operative till 2010 on daily basis, which failed only when the number of flights was reduced to four a week.

       He regretted the national flag carrier was not earnest in making the route functional, and the fresh flight schedule would also end in failure as very few passengers would opt to fly to and from Chitral because of the flight’s operational uncertainty.

       “I raised the issue time and again on the floor of the lower house of the parliament, emphasising the need for operating daily flights from Islamabad and Peshawar keeping in view the demand of people, but to no avail,” he said.

       Published in Dawn, March 19th, 2025