The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) on Friday partially restored the domestic flight operation, which means around one-fifth of the flights would now be allowed to operate from the country from May 16 (Saturday).

According to a notification issued by the CAA air traffic controller, these flights would be operated from Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar and Quetta.

Only 68 out of 369 domestic flights in a week were allowed to operate. The details available so far show that 32 flights each will leave Islamabad and Lahore every week.

Meanwhile, the passengers would have to wear masks before boarding the planes and have to go through medical screening and observe social distancing on the flights.

On the other hand, the PIA and a private airline announced the schedule of their upcoming domestic flights soon after the CAA made the decision.

The latest development came after the CAA earlier in the day extended the suspension of international flight operations till May 31.

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

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.