Mian Muhammad Adrees, Chairman Faisalabad Industrial Estate Development and Management Company (FIEDMC) has expressed concern over the suspension of three weekly PIA flights between Faisalabad and Karachi and demanded its immediate restoration. In a statement issued here on Thursday, he said that Faisalabad is the third largest city of Pakistan while people of its adjoining districts also prefer to travel from this international airport because of its proximity.
The total population of this area is around 15 million which is almost equal to the population of Balochistan. He said that Faisalabad is one of the major industrial cities of Pakistan which is also ranked second in revenue generation and because of its export potential, hundreds of exporters and importers daily travel to various destinations from this city. Similarly, the expatriates working in Middle East and other countries also use this airport for their routine travel.
He said initially PIA started two international flights: one from Faisalabad to Jeddah and another to Madina which are getting full load. In view of passenger load, PIA had to start another flight for Jeddah. Similarly, PIA was also operating one daily flight from Faisalabad to Karachi but due to unknown reasons, the three flights have been abandoned and now there are only four weekly flights on this important domestic route.
He said that PIA was also operating obsolete aeroplanes of old versions of ATR for this important route which are an open threat to the lives of the passengers. He demanded that airbus should be allocated for this route and the number of domestic flights should be doubled immediately with two daily flights, one in the morning and one in the evening.
He also demanded that the work on new proposed Faisalabad International airport should be started with immediate effect so that after full colonization of M-3 industrial estate, the foreign investors as well as local exporters could make their journey comfortable without wastage of time.