Benazir Bhutto International Airport Islamabad will remain close at day time from Oct 18 to 28
Islamabad, Pakistan: From October 18 to 28, the Islamabad Benazir Bhutto International Airport would remain closed for re-carpeting of runways from 1300 hrs to 1800 hrs every day.
According to Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and state run airline known as PIA, flights have been rescheduled during day and afternoon time and schedule of all flights taking off or landing at Islamabad airport will be affected by re-carpeting of runways.
PIA say that the passengers are being informed through SMS and telephone calls and they are also requested to confirm their flights from PIA Call Center at UAN 111 786 786 to avoid any inconvenience, the spokesman further stated.
It may be mentioned that capital airport of Pakistan is one of the smaller airports with limited facilities and number of flights taking off and landing and majority of air traffic of Pakistan go to Karachi and Lahore airports.
New airport for Islamabad was announced over 30 years ago but changes in governments and alleged corruption cause a delay of over one decade in opening of new airport that is being constructed near Rawalpindi.
Airports in Pakistan fall under the minister of Defence and CAA is the authority that looks after airport development and constructions.
According to Wikiepedia, new Islamabad International Airport or Gandhara International Airport is an under construction international airport in Attock District and is located 20 km from the center of Islamabad and 23 km from Rawalpindi. It is expected to be complete and operational by December 2016. However experts believe that delay in construction is inevitable due to many reasons.
The airport project was conceived in 1984 for which the acquisition of land started near Fateh Jang the same year. The design of new airport indicates that new airport will be a Greenfield airport having 90 check-in counters and a parking facility for 2,000 vehicles.
