On Saturday (7 August 2021), while talking to a local channel, the federal aviation minister, Ghulam Sarwar Khan, said that the Skardu airport is being refurbished to accommodate international flights in the northern area. He added that prime minister Imran Khan’s initiative would help to encourage tourism and economic growth in the Gilgit-Baltistan region.
The Skardu airport is situated at an altitude of over 7,000 feet and has been listed among the world’s highest altitude airports. The initiative would have all-weather and nighttime flight operations.
In the past few months, Gilgit and Skardu airports have come out as the busiest airports in the country with domestic flights from the major cities of the country – Karachi, Lahore, Sialkot, Islamabad, and Faisalabad as tourists want to explore the northern areas.
The aviation minister said, Soon, the government would announce a notification of declaring Skardu airport as the international airport. He added the airport’s runway was being extended for wide-body aircraft’s landing.
Meanwhile, the government is exploring alternatives to construct a new airport in Gilgit city and also to construct a bridge for heavy aircraft landing at the Gilgit airport.
The tourism minister of Gilgit-Baltistan, Raja Nasir Ali Khan said that the Skardu airport was being enhanced to offer better services to welcome the international flights. Mr raja said that the government has been in contact with the concerned authorities to start the international flight operations. He added that he stretched out full support to local private airlines that start flight operations to the region.
North Air, a new airline has been given a permit to work in the northern areas of Pakistan. It initially set off flights to and from Islamabad, Skardu, Chitral, Gilgit, and Gwadar. It would be covering the major part of tourists attractions. The airline expects to upgrade its air network to drive tourism and economic growth in the Gilgit Baltistan region so it attracts more than two million tourists.
The co-founder and co-owner of North Air, Raja Naeem ul Amen said, we are hopeful that the airline will help to promote Pakistan as a worldwide tourist destination. We want to make the connectivity better and end the gap of limited flight operations.
