PIA plane to leave for Syrian city of Aleppo today

A Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) plane will depart for the Syrian city of Aleppo on Monday (today) to bring back Pakistanis stranded in the war-torn country because of the bombing and postponing of flights at the Damascus airport.

According to statement released by the national carrier on Sunday, the PIA finalised its plan to send a flight to Syria following a request made by the Pakistani envoy in Syria in a letter to the Pakistani government and the chief executive officer of the airline.

In the first phase of the plan, the Pakistanis in Damascus will be transported to Aleppo in a bus from where the PIA flight will bring them back.

The PIA said in the statement that all Pakistanis would start reaching back within 24 hours.

A day earlier, Syria had confirmed major damage, including to runways at the Damascus International Airport, after it was closed for repairs due to Israeli air strikes.

Its transport ministry had said in a statement that runways were out of service.

PIA spokesperson Abdullah Hafeez Khand had said in a statement issued a day earlier that the airline had to cancel flight PK-135 from Karachi to Damascus that was scheduled to take off on Friday morning carrying 170 passengers.

Khand had added that another flight, PK-136, which was due to bring 169 passengers from Damascus, had been cancelled too due to the runways being completely inactive.

Also read: PIA suspends Damascus flights after Israel’s airstrike on airport

The spokesperson had regretted the inconvenience faced by the passengers, explaining that the flight’s cancellation was unavoidable due to the confronted operational issues.

He informed that the flights would be rescheduled as soon as the runways were restored, otherwise, stranded passengers would be transported through alternative means.

In a statement issued on Saturday, Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari had directed the authorities to ensure immediate repatriation of Pakistanis stranded in Syria.

Since civil war broke out in Syria in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of air strikes against its neighbours, targeting government troops as well as allied Iran-backed forces and fighters from Lebanon's group Hezbollah.

However, similar attacks have rarely resulted in severe aircraft interruptions. Air traffic will be suspended until the repair work is completed and airport security can be assured, according to the Syrian government.

“Civil aviation and national enterprises are working… to repair the significant damage at the airport,” the ministry had said, adding that the terminal building had also been damaged.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a missile strike early Friday morning had hit the airport’s only runway still in use, as well as many other structures.

(With input from agencies)