RECORDER REPORT

KARACHI: Due to dense fog and zero visibility at major parts of the country, flights schedule of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has been disturbed.

According to details, due to the weather conditions (dense fog and zero visibility) prevailing in the country, the schedule of PIA domestic and international flights is affected on Saturday and now as safety measures some domestic flights timing for Sunday has been revised and few are cancelled.

Six domestic flights - PK390, PK391, PK536, PK537, PK582 and PK583 were cancelled. The flight for the sector Lahore-Rahim Yar Khan-Abu Dhabi was rescheduled to operate directly from Lahore to Abu Dhabi. PIA flight PK588 for Karachi–Bahawalpur was operated as Karachi-Islamabad. The timings of some domestic flights operating on Sunday have also been revised due to weather conditions.

The revised expected timings are PK302 for the sector Karachi-Lahore will operate with an expected delay of one hour, PK341 and PK342 for the sectors Karachi-Faisalabad –Karachi will be operated as Karachi-Lahore-Karachi on the same timings, PK536 and PK537 for the sector Karachi-Moenjodaro-Sukkur-Karachi have been cancelled.

PK650 and PK651 for the sector Lahore-Islamabad-Lahore will now operate with a delay of two hours whereas PK651 and PK652 for the sector Lahore-Rahim Yar Khan –Lahore have been cancelled. PK652 will operate Lahore-Islamabad as per normal timings; PK580 and PK581 for the sector Karachi-Multan–Karachi are expected to operate with a delay of more than four hours while PK503 and PK504 for the sector Karachi-Gwadar-Karachi are also expected to operate with a delay due to weather.

PIA spokesman said that the weather condition was expected to prevail for the next few days and was beyond the control of the airline. PIA has to adjust the timings of its flights due to such weather conditions, as the airline cannot operate flights with poor visibility and also keeping in view the safety requirements. This result in either cancellation of the flights or flights operated with delays.