FAISALABAD: Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FCCI) Acting President Syed Zia Alamdar Hussain has demanded direct flights between Pakistan and China to facilitate the frequent travelers between the two countries.
In a statement issue here today, he said that China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has almost doubled the passengers load on this route but there is no direct flight and frequent travelers have to use alternate route via Thailand. “This lengthy route not only add additional financial burden but also consume almost double time as compared to the direct flight”, he said.
He told that the Pakistan-China friendship and CPEC related projects have also increased the number of Chinese working in this area. “They are the frequent travelers between Pakistan and china in addition to the local imports and exports who have to travel for their business purpose.
Continuing Syed Zia Alamdar Hussain that FCCI had played an important role in convincing foreign airline companies to starts direct international flights from Faisalabad and at the moment five airlines including PIA are successfully operating direct international flights from Faisalabad to various international destinations. He said that Faisalabad is thickly populated city while the people from the surrounding districts also use Faisalabad Airport for their regular travel.
Out of them, a large numbers of people are directly related with the business of import and export and regularly travel to various international destinations while hundreds of them are working in Middle East and other countries.
He said that according to an initial study, enough passengers load is available from Faisalabad to china. He told that many international airlines are operating their flights to china via Thailand which consume almost double times. Similarly they have to pay more air fare due to the length of this route. He particularly mentioned that stopover of 8 hours is very pinching on return from china.
During this period the passengers are neither provided proper accommodation nor is mandatory hospitality extended to them. He said that in view of the availability of the sufficient passenger the international airlines operating from Faisalabad should also start direct flights from Faisalabad to china, he demanded.
