ISLAMABAD: Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) will resume flights starting Monday for Pakistani citizens in Saudi Arabia after the kingdom on Sunday permitted all airlines to carry non-Saudis out of the country, a PIA press release said.
Last week, Saudi Arabia suspended all international passenger flights for one week in response to a new, more transmissible strain of the coronavirus, which emerged in the United Kingdom and some other European countries.
Due to coronavirus, the Saudi government only gave one way permission, the statement said, and added that despite being a financial burden, “the return of stranded Pakistanis is inevitable.”
No international passengers would travel on planes entering Saudi Arabia, and the new instructions exclude countries where the new strain of the virus has appeared.
“Bringing back Pakistanis stranded abroad is a national responsibility,” the PIA chief said in the statement.
“Foreign airlines are permitted to operate flights for this purpose (but) must not allow crew to leave the aircraft and not to physically contact the ground/ operation staff of the arrival airport,” the Saudi instructions, released by the General Authority Civil Aviation, said.
The circular is addressed to all airlines operating in airports across Saudi Arabia.
