India plan to resume commercial flights to Afghanistan
New Delhi : Days after Taliban wrote to DGCA urging India to restart commercial flight operations to Kabul, a report suggests that India is mulling on the plan to resume the services as many Indians are still stranded in Afghanistan.
The last commercial flight that operated between India and Afghanistan was on August 15. The flight services were shut from August 16 onwards after the air space of Afghanistan was declared ‘uncontrolled’ by the Taliban-controlled Afghanistan Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). For those who are not aware of what happened, Taliban had captured Kabul on August 15 and they got complete control on the Kabul airport on August 30 when America completed its evacuation drive.
Couple of days back, DGCA had received a letter from Taliban seeking permission for Afghan national carriers to resume scheduled commercial flights between the two countries. The letter also mentioned that the Kabul airport has become operational.
“As you are well informed that recently the Kabul airport was damaged and (left) dysfunctional by American troops before their withdrawal”, Akhunzada said in his letter”, CAA’s Acting Minister Alhaj Hameedullah Akhunzada said in the letter.
“The intention of this letter is to keep the smooth passenger movement between two countries based on signed MoU and our national carriers (Ariana Afghan airline and Kam Air) aim to commence their scheduled flights. Therefore, Afghanistan CAA requests you to facilitate their commercial flights. The civil aviation of Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan avails its highest assurance,” he stated further.
While the DGCA is yet to take a final decision in the matter, officials also said that the government is considering the request in view of the stranded Indians.
