The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) on Friday extended the suspension of international flight operations till May 31.

However, the orders issued by the CCA will not apply to the special flights operated to repatriate the Pakistanis stranded abroad and those arranged by other countries to transport their citizens stuck in Pakistan.

Meanwhile, a special PIA flight landed in Islamabad from Paris on Friday afternoon carrying 150 stranded Pakistanis on board. The flight had been arranged by the Government of Pakistan to repatriate stranded Pakistanis in France.

Apart from France, a number of stranded Pakistanis from neighbouring countries, including Belgium, Italy and Poland also travelled on the special flight. In addition to the passengers, three dead bodies of Pakistani nationals who had unfortunately passed away in the recent past were also repatriated.

Meanwhile, Qatar Airways operated another special flight to bring 237 Pakistanis from Doha to Peshawar’s Bacha Khan International Airport. All the passengers were sent into quarantine after initial screening soon after their arrival.

Later, the plane returned to Doha while carrying 258 people who were stuck in Pakistan. 

In this connection, the US embassy in Pakistan had issued a travel advisory last week for its residents, asking them to take advantage of the four commercial flights operated by the Qatar Airways to Doha from different cities.

The first of these flights left from Islamabad for Doha on May 13 and second from Peshawar on May 15 (Friday). The remaining two flights are scheduled from Multan and Karachi on May 19.

The embassy said the US nationals would have to arrange flights from Doha to the United States and added that they had no plan to arrange additional chartered flights.