Unprecedented Delays: PIA cites technical reasons for delays

ISLAMABAD: A Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) spokesman on Tuesday blamed the weather and technical reasons for the delay, cancellation and re-scheduling of most of its flights. The spokesman said that bad weather in the northern areas of Pakistan caused PIA flights PK 660, PK 661, PK 607 and PK 608 to Peshawar, Chitral and Gilgit to be cancelled. Technical reasons forced the national carrier to reschedule flight PK 743 from Karachi to Madinah, which eventually departed at 7:00am on Tuesday morning. Since the same aircraft had to be utilised for flight PK 266 bound for Dhaka from Karachi, its departure was changed to 10:50am and flew on another aircraft. Consequently, PK 759 from Lahore to Jeddah took-off at 8:30pm. Flight PK 300 from Karachi to Islamabad was delayed due to technical reasons and PK 301.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 18^th, 2012.