Covid-19 related flight cancellations have left many Pakistani nationals stranded in Qatar as well as the rest of the Gulf region.

A Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight on Monday returned 155 Pakistani citizens back to their home after they were left stranded in Doha.

The nationals were stuck in Qatar due to a wave of Covid-19 related flight cancellations in recent weeks.

While others may have abandoned our countrymen for petty gains, your national carrier will never leave anyone stranded. #PIA has mounted number of flights, to get our people back home, in time for spending Eids with their loved ones. #WeAreOne #Inthistogether #Pakistan pic.twitter.com/88osOmmJQA

— PIA (@Official_PIA) July 5, 2021

“PIA’s relief operation to bring Pakistanis who got stranded because of cancellation of flights of other airlines is underway, and our first flight arrived this morning [on Monday] with 155 passengers from Doha,” said PIA Spokesperson Abdullah Hafeez Khan.

PIA has allocated eight special flights for Qatar, two for Bahrain and added 2,000 additional seats from the UAE to bring nationals back to Pakistan. If need be, the airline will add more flights.

Another 2,016 Pakistanis will be brought back home from Qatar from 6 July to 18 July while another 722 Pakistani nationals will be taken from Bahrain between 9 July and 11 July.

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“PIA flights were upgraded from Airbus to 777 (as per existing schedule) to take approximately 6132 passengers from Dubai, Sharjah, Doha and Bahrain on 18 PIA flights,”  said the Civil Aviation Society in a statement on Saturday.

PIA will use Boeing 777 aircraftS from its fleet to accommodate more passengers than regular Airbus planes operated on these routes.

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