A first international, but non-commercial, passenger flight took off from Kabul on Thursday, followed by another, operated by Qatar Airways, on Friday with 158 people on board.
A first commercial flight will link Islamabad to Kabul on Monday, a spokesman for Pakistani airline PIA announced on Saturday (September 11). This is the first time since the Taliban took control of power in Afghanistan.
“We have all the technical authorizations for air operations”Abdullah Hafeez Khan told AFP. “At this stage, we’ve received 73 requests” interested passengers, “which is very encouraging”, he added, adding that many requests came from aid organizations and journalists who want to go to Kabul.
This is the first commercial flight announced since the Taliban took power in Afghanistan, followed by the departure of the last US troops from the country on 30 August. A first international, but non-commercial, passenger flight took off from Kabul on Thursday, followed by another, operated by Qatar Airways, on Friday with 158 passengers on board, including Americans, Germans, Canadians, French, Dutch, Belgians and Mauritian.