ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s national air carrier has resumed two-way direct flights from Faisalabad in the country’s eastern Punjab province to Saudi Arabia’s port city of Jeddah, an official statement said on Friday, with an aim to facilitate Umrah pilgrims.
The Saudi destinations of Jeddah and Madinah have always been lucrative for Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), a loss-making state-owned entity that the government is trying to privatize.
These routes are particularly profitable due to the high volume of passengers traveling for religious purposes, such as Umrah and Hajj pilgrimages.
Jeddah is located close to Makkah, and the consistent demand for flights to the two holy cities of Islam ensures a steady stream of revenue for the airline, making them some of the most critical routes in terms of profitability and passenger load.
“PIA started two-way flights from Faisalabad to Jeddah,” the airline announced in a statement. “With the resumption of these flights, special facilities will be available, especially to Umrah pilgrims.”
PIA reduced its flight operations during the COVID-19 pandemic. It will operate these flights between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia twice a week.
The initiative was welcomed by the business community in Faisalabad, a major textile hub of the country.
PIA’s Chief Commercial Officer Nausherwan Adil bid goodbye to at least 170 Umrah pilgrims as the first flight PK763 left Faisalabad Airport for Saudi Arabia.
Adil said PIA always tried to provide direct travel facilities to its passengers, adding the resumption of flights would benefit overseas Pakistanis residing in the kingdom for employment purposes.
Pakistan’s national air carrier resumes Faisalabad-Jeddah flight to facilitate Umrah pilgrims
https://arab.news/8uu7x
Pakistan’s national air carrier resumes Faisalabad-Jeddah flight to facilitate Umrah pilgrims
- Saudi destinations of Jeddah and Madinah have always been lucrative for the Pakistani airline
- Pakistan International Airlines will operate direct flights between the two cities twice a week
Bangladesh refuse to go to India for T20 World Cup
- Bangladesh board’s response comes a day after ICC rejected its demand to shift World Cup matches from India to Sri Lanka
- Row erupted in January when India’s cricket board asked IPL franchise to drop Bangladesh player amid political tensions
DHAKA, Bangladesh: Bangladesh will not travel to India to play in next month’s T20 World Cup, its cricket board said on Thursday, effectively ruling the country out of the tournament.
“Our only demand is to play the World Cup — but not in India,” Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) President Aminul Islam Bulbul told reporters.
The refusal came a day after cricket’s governing body rejected Bangladesh’s plea to play its games in Sri Lanka instead.
“There is no scope for changing our decision,” said Asif Nazrul, an adviser for youth and sports issues in Bangladesh’s interim government.
The T20 World Cup begins on February 7, with Bangladesh scheduled to play their four group matches in the Indian cities of Kolkata and Mumbai.
The row between the neighboring nations erupted on January 3 when the Indian cricket board ordered the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Kolkata Knight Riders to release Bangladesh fast bowler Mustafizur Rahman.
Mustafizur’s removal from the IPL followed online outrage by right-wing Indian Hindus who invoked alleged attacks on a fellow community in Muslim-majority Bangladesh.
Dhaka maintains that Indian media had exaggerated the scale of the violence.
The sport’s global governing body said on Wednesday it had “engaged with the BCB in sustained and constructive dialogue” to ensure Bangladesh could participate in the tournament, but added that those efforts had been “rebuffed.”
The International Cricket Council (ICC) said “independent security assessments, comprehensive venue-level security plans and formal assurances from the host authorities” found there was “no credible or verifiable threat to the safety” of the Bangladesh team.
‘LOSE A HUGE AUDIENCE’
However, Nazrul said Bangladesh’s security concerns “did not arise from speculation or theoretical analysis.”
“They arose from a real incident — where one of our country’s top players was forced to bow to extremists, and the Indian cricket board asked him to leave India,” he said.
Bangladesh will hold elections during the World Cup, its first since a mass uprising in 2024 toppled then-prime minister Sheikh Hasina, a close ally of New Delhi.
Political relations have since soured between Bangladesh and India, where Hasina fled after she was ousted.
There are wider issues for India, which is preparing to host the 2030 Commonwealth Games that are seen as a stepping stone for its ambitions to host the 2036 Olympics.
“Bangladesh is a cricket-loving nation. If a country of nearly 200 million people misses the World Cup, the ICC will lose a huge audience,” the BCB’s Bulbul said.
“Cricket is entering the Olympics in 2028, Brisbane in 2032, India is bidding for 2036. Excluding a major cricket-loving country like Bangladesh would be a failure.”
Bangladesh’s appeal to the ICC was not without precedent, with India’s arch-enemy Pakistan to play all its games in Sri Lanka.
That deal was struck after India, a financial and administrative powerhouse within cricket, refused to travel to Pakistan for the 2025 Champions Trophy and played its matches in Dubai instead.
However, the ICC said a year later a similar shift was impossible for Bangladesh.
“There are many precedents worldwide where matches have been moved to other venues due to security risks,” Bangladesh’s Nazrul said.
ICC sources told AFP this week that Bangladesh could be replaced by Scotland, the highest-ranked team that did not qualify outright for the World Cup.
