Lahore-Dushanbe flight operation squeezes to one flight a week
Islamabad, Pakistan: Flight operations between Tajikistan and Pakistan have reduced to only one flight a week just after two months of starting of flight operations.
The flight operating company in Lahore said that flight operations from two flights a week to one flight on every Monday would continue due to “technical reason”. However, travel and tourism experts in the industry believe that the reason behind squeezing flight operations is almost “no interest” of people of both the countries in this route.
“There is no load on this route and this flight is not viable financially and service can be suspended in near future if load situation remains same as it is today”, claim travel agents in Lahore.
It may be mentioned that two-way fair between Lahore and Dushanbe was 370 US dollars when flight started on May 6, 2016 but now fair has been increased to 470 US dollars to keep the flight operations rolling.
It is pertinent to mention that a Dushanbe-based private company Somon Air initiated flight just a week before visit of Prime Minister Mian Nawaz Sharif to Dushanbe to attend groundbreaking ceremony of power project CASA1000.
Inauguration of Samon Air flight was very much promoted in Pakistani as well as in Tajik media stating this development as “a new chapter of Pak-Tajik diplomatic relations”. Prime Minister Pakistan Mian Nawaz Sharif mentioned Lahore-Dushanbe flight in his speech at CASA1000 ceremony as a great achievement of his diplomatic policy.
“If this flight suspends in future, it will a jolt to Pak-Tajik relations because CASA1000 project is already in doll drums and suspension of this flight would add more adverse impact of Pak-Tajik relations, believe diplomatic circles in Islamabad.
