Pakistani aviation industry bounces back after Covid-19 losses

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) of Pakistan reported a surge in overflight revenue after a substantial decline in new Covid-19 cases in the country.

The overflight revenue of the authority was significantly increased up to 30 million rupees per day due to a surge in air transportation after the reopening of airspace for foreign flights, the CAA said on Tuesday.

After the decrease of new Covid-19 cases in Pakistan, the number of foreign flights passing over Pakistan's airspace has reached more than 350 a day, the authority said, adding that it earned 490 million rupees after 4,138 flights travelled through the airspace during the second half of August.

A total of 1,886 flights have used Pakistan's airspace during the first week of September, after an increase in landing and take-off of aircraft of foreign airlines was witnessed soon after the country's aviation industry adopted effective policies under the guidelines of the World Health Organization aiming at curbing the spread of Covid-19.

The authority detailed that more than 55 flights are arriving and departing from the country's major airports in a day. The overflight revenue had massively declined due to the coronavirus pandemic and the aviation industry suffered a loss of over 30.5 billion rupees during April-July because of limited flight operations. (1 US dollar = 166.30 rupees)

(Source: UNB)