Islamabad (Web Desk): Domestic flight operations restored in the country from five major airports on Saturday to facilitate the passengers.
According to a spokesperson of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), a flight of the national flag carrier carrying 84 passengers reached Lahore from Karachi today.
The spokesperson said the SOPs are strictly being observed to avoid the spread of the coronavirus. He said it has been made mandatory for the passengers to wear masks and use hand sanitizers.
The decision of the resumption of limited domestic flights was announced by Aviation Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan in a video statement on Friday stated that limited domestic flight operations would resume from Saturday (today).
He said that the decision to restart the operation was taken after a period of around two months after which the PIA and Serene Air are resuming their flights from five major airports including Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi, Quetta and Peshawar.
The minister said that the SOP’s in this regard have been issued, according to which each passenger will be scanned and his body temperature will be checked before and after embarkation, besides providing him with face mask and hand sanitizer.
In a post on Twitter, Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (PCAA) said that the move came "in view of the difficulties being faced by passengers in travelling between major cities in Pakistan."
The decision comes as the number of coronavirus cases continue to soar despite the country has remained under a lockdown nearly one and a half month.
The tally of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Pakistan rose to 38,799 on Saturday while 10,880 patients have fully recovered so far.
On Friday, Prime Minister Imran Khan said that we will have to learn to live with the coronavirus this year as its cure is not forthcoming soon.
In his televised address to explain the situation regarding the Covid-19, the premier said that the country could not afford an indefinite lockdown as 150 million people have been affected by the lockdown enforced to contain the spread of the coronavirus in the country.
PM Khan said that the government is prepared to deal with an increase in the number of coronavirus cases and is working on increasing healthcare capacity.
While reiterating that the government was dealing with the crisis on the basis of consensus, the prime minister also appealed to the provinces to reopen public transport.
Khan insisted that it was the common man that was suffering due to public transport being suspended.
However, Sindh govt refused to resume transport services as Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa announced reopening all public transport from Monday.
