KARACHI: PIA relief flight for Melbourne, Australia carrying 300 passengers left Allama Iqbal International Airport Lahore on Friday evening.

This is the first time in the history of PIA that a flight is being operated to Melbourne. The passengers of the flight were assisted by PIA Station Manager Ali Asghar Zaidi and his team. PIA is making all efforts to operate relief flights in difficult times due to Covid-19 pandemic. The passengers thanked CEO PIA Air Marshal Arshad Malik and appreciated PIA for operating relief flight to Melbourne and hoped that this could be made a regular flight by PIA. This direct flight to Melbourne is of the longest duration operated by PIA with flight flying time of 14 hours.

The return flight PK 8963 will leave Melbourne for Lahore on Sunday 26 April.

Two other PIA relief flights PK 8222 and PK 8224 landed at Faisalabad Airport from Dubai bringing back 142 and 140 passengers respectively. The passengers were assisted by PIA District Manager Shahid Hussain and PIA Station Manager Saleem Iqbal and other PIA officers of Faisalabad Region. The returning passengers raised slogan of Pakistan and PIA Zindabad.—PR