RAHIM YAR KHAN: The passengers of Rahim Yar Khan and adjoining areas have been deprived of air travel facility for the last three years despite the fact that the district has a well-equipped Sheikh Zayed International Airport. Despite having a state-of-the-art terminal and 3,400-meter runway, the airport is said to be facing prospect of permanent closure.

There used to be daily flights of ATR aircraft for Karachi, thrice a week for Lahore and twice for Islamabad before the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. Similarly, there were two international flights for Abu Dhabi in 2009-10 which catered thousands of overseas Pakistanis who belong to Cholistan, Rahim Yar Khan district, and were employed in UAE.

The RYK airport also has the facility of night landing and during previous years Hajj flights were operated to facilitate the passengers of RYK as well as neighbouring Rajanpur, Muzaffargarh, Ghotki, Sui and Dera Bugti districts.

After the Covid-19 onslaught in March 2020 when air travel was terminated at national and international level, the flights to and from RYK were closed. Later, when the air travel restrictions were lifted, a single flight was started for Karachi and later another was added. A flight for Lahore also was restored in August 2021 but it was closed after one day due to reasons best known to the authorities.

There were two weekly flights for Karachi till April last but due to unavailability of a plane, the flight operating every Thursday was again closed. Now there is only flight for Karachi on Monday.

A source in the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) told Dawn that there was no air link for Lahore and Islamabad from Rahim Yar Khan and Bahawalpur airports. The Dera Ghazi Khan airport was permanently closed last year, he said.

He said that in Rahim Yar Khan there were many corporate passengers of local and international companies, six sugar mills, textile units and hundreds of flour and cotton ginning factories. He further said there was a load of 118 passengers in Boeing-737 having 118-seat capacity and Airbus-320 would fly with optimum capacity of 160 passengers. For Abu Dhabi flight, he said, the PIA staff had to be denied the booking many times in the past.

RYK PIA District Sales Manager Abdul Ghaffar Shahzad told Dawn that he had written three letters to the higher-ups for immediate restoration of Abu Dhabi flight because of a huge load of passengers as was evident from public inquiries.

He said the Karachi flight every Thursday would be restored in July and the plane coming from Karachi on Mondays would be extended to Lahore. He claimed that two weekly flights were also going to be started and work on their feasibility was in progress.

Asked about the possible closure of the airport, Mr Shahzad said there was no truth to it because of its strategic location.

PIA spokesperson at head office (Karachi) Abdullah Hafeez Khan did not reply to the call and a text message sent by this correspondent for further clarity on the situation.

Published in Dawn, May 23rd, 2022