ISLAMABAD: The first mock flight of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) successfully touched down at the recently constructed new Islamabad International Airport on Saturday.
The mock flight PK-9001 piloted by Captain Bajrani with first officers Hamad Khan and Muddasir Mushtaq took off from Benazir International Airport and successfully landed at the new Islamabad airport.
PIA chief executive officer Musharraf Rasool Cyan was present in the flight to observe the mock exercise.
The PIA management decided to conduct the mock exercise of landing a passenger plane and handling the passengers’ check-in by its staff, crew members, customs, Airport Security Force, Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) and other relevant agencies before the grand opening of the airport on April 20.
Located at 30km from Islamabad the construction on the new airport was started in April 2007.
The “Y” shaped new airport spreads over 19 square kilometers with 15 jetties (passenger boarding bridges), including facilities to accommodate two double-deck A380, the world’s largest airplane, 15 remote bays and seven remote bays for small aircraft such as ATRs. It will be the biggest international airport in the country in terms of landing and passenger handling facilities. For the 15 bays, the same number of lounges have been built to avoid mixing of passengers. The new airport has two runways each 3.5 km long.
The Airport will be officially inaugurated on April 20 for both regular domestic and international flights.
The old Benazir Bhutto International Airport control will be transferred to the new airport between April 19 and April 20.
