By Zahiruddin
CHITRAL: The selection of inappropriate timing and days by Pakistan International Airline (PIA) for Chitral causes not only frequent cancellation of flights due to inclement weather but it also causes inconvenience for the passengers.
The passengers complained that the airline has curtailed the number of flights on Chitral sector by 80 percent as it has dropped the twenty one flights a week (three flights daily) to only two a week which are operated on Fridays and Sundays.
They said that the gap of only one day between the two flight days of the week causes inconvenience for them as one has to wait for five consecutive days to avail himself of the flight while by introducing a mid-week flight instead of Sunday, the trouble can be done away with.
“A person coming to Chitral from Islamabad or Peshawar on Friday cannot go back by the next available flight on Sunday and has to wait for five days and only the flight on Tuesday or Wednesday can suit them”, they said.
The timing of the operation of the flights in the afternoon time is also said to be faulty as the existing flights are highly susceptible to cancellation on weather grounds.
A former captain pilot of the airline, Shahzada Sirajul Mulk said that in the mountainous areas like Chitral, the morning time is more airworthy than the afternoon when the clouds started developing with each passing moment.
He said that due to the irrational approach of the airline regarding schedule of days and timings, the tourists coming to Chitral for mountaineering and sight- seeing in hilly areas get diverted to Gilgit-Baltistan due to the availability of daily two flights each for Gilgit and Skardu where frequency of flight operation is also higher.
The people also questioned the decision of the airline for the curtailment of the number of flights on Chitral sector insisting that there was no shortage of passengers and cargo to and from Chitral while it had been one of the profitable routes for the airline in the past.
The said that the drastic reduction in the number of flights has also adversely affected the tourism sector in Chitral as majority of the foreign tourists and mountaineers traveled by air and the unavailability of flights and the high frequency of their makes them go to GB.
They said that in mega projects of power and road in the district, a large number of foreigners have been engaged in different capacities who travelled to and from Chitral only by air and the unavailability of flights also affects the progress of the projects while the foreigners paid four time more fares than the Pakistanis did.
