Nestled in the heart of new Lahore with Gulberg nearby and Model Town right next to it, is the century-old Walton Airport. In 1918, a group of aviation enthusiasts requested the British Raj to create a landing strip, where the latter allotted 158 acres of land for it. The airstrip was officially launched in 1920 and registered as Northern Indian Flying Club by 1922 and thereafter used by enthusiasts seeking to enjoy the thrill of flying planes.

In 1930, in order to officially be able to collect funds for its improvement and upkeep, during an annual meeting of the club, it was decided to officially transform the club into a company. In 1932, the club was officially registered as a company, changing once and for all its importance and prestige. More planes were also acquired by then.

In 1933, creator of Walton Railway Training School, Sir Colonel Cusack Walton was asked to head the flying club and by 1935, this flying strip was given the name ‘Walton Airfield.’ During World War Two and again during the 1971 war, the flying strip was also used an airbase.

Later, after the creation of Pakistan, it was historically the first location of the nation’s founding father, Quaid-e-Azam’s initial arrival to Pakistan. After partition of the Indian subcontinent, Northern Indian Flying Club changed its name to Lahore Flying Club and the airport itself was used as the official airport in Lahore. In 1951, the then governor of Punjab, donated Rs 20,000 to the Lahore Flying Club and during a 1953 subsidy scheme, director general of the Civil Authority Association entrusted the club with the training of commercial pilots. When Pakistan International Airport acquired its first jet aircraft Boeing 720, Walton airport was unable to handle the load of a jet aircraft and it was then that the government decided to create the new Allamah Iqbal International Airport in 1962.

Recently, it was announced that the historical airport is to be relocated as its location, in the heart of Lahore, is dangerous and should be relocated to a more remote location. A new ordinance was introduced on 4th February called ‘The Lahore Central Business District Development Authority Ordinance’ and under it a new development authority in Lahore called Lahore central Business District Development Authority headed by Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar is to be set up.

Currently five different flying clubs operate at the Walton Airport: Lahore Flying Club, Hybrid Aviation Pvt Ltd, Hybrid Flying Club, Airborne Aviation and Ultra Light and Sports Flying Club. Hundreds of students training to be pilots fly at the airport. According to the CAA, presently about 2,000 flights operate a month from the airport.

In 2012, a two-seater plane on a training flight crashed into the lawn of a house in Model Town. Both the trainer and pilot died in the crash. Another plane crashed in May 2018 near Ferozepur Road during a training session at the old airport. The pilot and co-pilot only suffered minor injuries. In another incident in September 2020, a plane crash landed at the airport where after the crash, the front wheel of the aircraft broke off however, no injuries were sustained by the trainee pilot flying the plane.

According to Shuja Imran, who is a cadet pilot and a video blogger for a Youtube channel catering to aviation enthusiasts, “Walton Airport is the only airport in Pakistan that is completely dedicated to training student pilots.”

There are approximately 100 student pilots currently actively partaking in aviation training at the soon-to-be relocated airport while an additional 100, who are participating in classroom preparation before they can commence their training. While some news has been received that the airport will be relocated to Sheikhupura, no official statement has been made revealing concrete plans as to when and where the relocation will be. Imran, who has been flying at the airport since 2017, says the decision will impact him and several others as it will be more difficult to commute to the new location. “This will affect both the students and the trainers as it will add additional travelling time to the new location,” he said. “It will also be difficult for the flying clubs to reestablish themselves at the new location.”

The relocation may be a deterrent for both the students who may wish to enroll in the future, which could possibly impact the future of aviation altogether in Pakistan- a fact that is alarming after its existing state where a trained and a professional number of pilots is meagre as it is.

“In essence an airport should not be located in the middle of the city but since every airport in Pakistan is in the middle of the city, this argument in itself is flawed,” says Imran.

“If this is the reasoning for shifting the airport, then both the Allama Iqbal International Airport and Karachi’s Jinnah International Airport should be relocated too,” he said. “There should certainly be more safety parameters in place, which the CAA should be implementing but apart from that, this is not a valid argument.”

Shahzaib Anzar, who received his commercial pilot license in December 2019 and is currently undertaking a Flight Instructor Trainee course with Hybrid Aviation.

According to him, “From a safety perspective, there should be a 1,000 feet of clearance that should be added on top of the tallest building in the area. However, there is so much construction around Walton Airport that should not have happened and that affects flight safety. On the right of Walton, there is Falcon Complex and on the left you have Naval Housing society and Askari V. Most of these have been built right alongside the airstrip.”

“The residents of that area throw a lot of trash outside their homes and that attracts birds, which can be a flying hazard,” he said. “Incidents have happened where birds have hit the screen of the aircraft window and in some cases, they have broken the window and come inside the plane too.”

According to Anzar, there are around 100 flight instructors between the flying clubs operating at the airport who are gaining flight hours experience. All of them are Lahore-based and this will add additional commute for them. “Now tell me, the students who are based in Lahore, won’t they naturally shift to the flying club at Allama Iqbal Airport? Isn’t that going to affect the business of the flying clubs who are being shifted from Lahore. What student is going to commute an additional hour to learn when he or she can just do that at Allama Iqbal Airport?

“The airport has been destroying by governments who haven’t prioritised what it stands for. Who cares about heritage after all?” he added.

“Same goes for Allamah Iqbal International Airport. There’s been constructions around there too that according to world flight safety are hazardous for flying,” he said. “So slowly that airport is going to rendered unsafe too and that’ll have to be moved too.”

The airport, which is surrounded by a small forest spread over 20 acres and comprises 9,000 trees, is also likely to be lost if the business hub is developed here - a move that seems counterproductive to the presiding government’s climate change commitment to increase greenery through tree plantation across the country.

The decision could also be particularly damaging to the city that is already the second most polluted city in the world with an Air Quality Index rating of 247 and an air pollution level recorded at PM2.5 concentration of 197 µg/m³.

Currently no provisions have been made in the existing ordinance to preserve the heritage of the airport while creating the new business district.

Anthony Chaudhry, who has been the Secretary of Lahore Flying Club since 1986 says, “It has been operating since before the partition. It is basically heritage and should be preserved [as such].”

According to Chaudhry, “There are crashes all over the world, even at the main airport. This is no argument [for closing Walton Airport]. There already so much pollution in the city and eradication of the forest will just further increase that pollution.”

As a counter to the argument that the airport is smack in the middle of Gulberg and Model Town and impeding further business development in the area, he blames the planning of Lahore. “The heritage of the airport should have been preserved and those areas should not have been planned and built around the airport to begin with,” he says.

“The airport was there earlier than all the buildings. Those buildings shouldn’t have been built so close to the airport. They are illegal basically.”

“Walton should be preserved as it is,” he says at the end. And that is perhaps should happen even if that preservation looks different to what we may have in mind. The airport could be relocated for ensuring safety of the area but the structural integrity of the existing structure and strip should not be paved over the new district either. A third solution that honours the heritage of the area, while still repurposing it into a business area should be considered more closely.

Lahore Flying Club has filed a petition in Lahore High Court moving for the court under Article 199 of the Constitution for ‘prohibiting the respondents from hindering the smooth operational functioning of the petitioner that is carrying out its lawful functions at Walton Airfield.’ The petition further notes the move to be ‘detrimental to the ownership of the petitioner’ and ‘prejudicial to the environment/cultural heritage of Lahore.’ The court in its last session on the matter, adjourned proceedings in this case for March 16th.

Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) Public Relations Officer Saad Bin Ayub and Civil Aviation Authority Lahore declined to comment on the matter citing that the CAA is not allowed to speak on it.

However, the ongoing case has not in any way, shape or form deterred the progress of business hub. In the last week of February, a foundation stone-laying ceremony took place where Prime Minister Imran Khan laid the ceremonial first stone for the new business district. At the ceremony, the premier dubbed it an ‘out-of-the-box’ initiative for wealth generation and estimated that during the first phase alone, some Rs 1,300 billion would be generated, which he says would offer the federal government, Rs 250 billion in the form of tax revenue.

During the ceremony when asked by a reporter, the premier did say the forest would be kept intact during the building of the district. However, this hasn’t been laid out in the ordinance itself. No provisions have been made in the ordinance to the preservation of heritage value of the site either.

The closing down of Walton Airport a testament to the country’s leaders continuous disregard for preservation of history. It is yet another decision, in a long-standing tradition of decisions in the country, to opt for short-termism. While economic activity is an integral need, the decision should not be an ‘either or’ but rather an elaborate long-term plan to develop an authority that commemorates the heritage of the area as well as lays out a solution to reuse it for wealth generation.