Pakistan airports handle 26.8m passengers

Karachi's Jinnah tops 2025 traffic; Islamabad, Lahore close behind

LAHORE:

In 2025, a total of 26.815 million domestic and international passengers travelled through seven airports of the country.

The highest number of passengers travelled through Karachi's Jinnah International Airport, where 8.5 million passengers undertook both international and domestic journeys - including 4.037 million international and 4.013 million domestic travellers. At Islamabad International Airport, 7.87 million passengers travelled, of whom 5.41 million were international and 2.406 million domestic passengers.

Through Lahore's Allama Iqbal International Airport, 6.86 million passengers travelled, including 5.14 million international and 1.73 million domestic travellers.

From Multan Airport, 1.365 million passengers travelled internationally, while 80,000 travelled domestically. At Peshawar Airport, 1.29 million passengers travelled, including 1.06 million international travellers.

From Faisalabad Airport, 470,000 passengers travelled  — 420,000 international and 50,000 domestic. From Quetta Airport, 375,000 passengers travelled during the year.

According to information obtained by The Express Tribune from the Pakistan Airports Authority (PAA), a huge number of these passengers faced severe difficulties.

These difficulties included hours-long delays in arrivals and departures, last-minute flight cancellations as well as a lack of facilities. Despite receiving thousands of complaints, the PAA failed to take corrective measures.