KARACHI: Pakistan has allowed an Afghanistan airline to operate its flights from Islamabad to Kabul, a Civil Aviation Authority official said late on Sunday.
Kam Air — Afghanistan’s largest private airline — will operate three flights a week, becoming the first Afghan airline to operate outside Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover, Irfan Sabir, director of CAA Air Transport, told Anadolu Agency.
The permission, he said, has been granted at the request of Kam Air, which, until now, is the only Afghanistan airline to apply for the flight permit.
Initially, he said, that the airline might only operate chartered flights from Islamabad to Kabul due to limited passengers. In the coming days, he added, it might start commercial flights.
Flight operations in Afghanistan came to a halt after the Taliban takeover of Kabul on August 15. The domestic flights were resumed on September 5.
Founded in 2003, according to the airline’s official website, it has seven aircraft and a workforce of over 1,200 people.
Apart from within Afghanistan, the airline would operate to and from several international destinations, including Central Asia, South Asia, and the Middle East, before the Taliban takeover.
Pakistan International Airlines was the first airline to operate the first international flight to Afghanistan on September 13, after the Taliban takeover.
