Islamabad-Chitral flights opposed

By Zahiruddin
CHITRAL: The PIA authorities have been urged to operate Peshawar-Chitral flight instead of Islamabad-Chitral because majority of the Chitral-bound passengers came from Peshawar.
The residents said that there was no logic of direct flight from Islamabad to Chitral as the number of passengers using the route was very low.
They said that sometimes the flight was even cancelled for lack of passengers and on numerous occasions only three or four passengers traveled on the said flight. They alleged that the authorities of the national airline did not care for the loss the organisation sustained.
The residents contended that thousands of Chitralis settled in Peshawar and a good number of youth went to the provincial capital to seek employment.
They maintained that a fraction of the population could afford to travel by air from the federal capital to Chitral.
They observed that main objective of the flight from Islamabad to Chitral was to boost tourism but that goal was not achieved.--Dawn