Up in air: Passengers protest flight delays at BKIA

PESHAWAR:

Scores of passengers protested at Bacha Khan International Airport against delays in flights on Monday.

An official of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said flight NL-723 bound for Riyadh, Saudi Arabia was set to depart from Peshawar at 9:30am but could not take off till 1pm due to technical issues. He added more than 200 people offered Eid prayers at the airport amid tight security, following which they started protesting the flight delay.

The CAA official said a flight to Chitral was also cancelled due to bad weather, keeping more than a hundred people from reaching their destination. He added international flight NL-785 was scheduled to land in Peshawar at 7:20am Sunday but was delayed till 9:35am Monday. As a result, most people receiving their loved ones arriving from Dubai kept waiting for hours.

Even the special train bound from Karachi to Peshawar arrived six hours late, making the ordeal even more tiresome for the already exhausted commuters.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 29^th, 2014.