Taliban requests India to resume commercial flight operations, decision under review

New Delhi : The Taliban has recently requested India’s aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to resume commercial flight operations to Kabul, which were closed after August 15. “The Civil Aviation of Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan extends its compliments to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation of India. As you are informed that recently the Kabul airport was damaged and these functional by American troops before their withdrawal. By technical assistance of our Qatar brother the airport became operational once again and a NOTAM in this regard was issued on September 06, 2021,” a letter from Afghanistan Civil Aviation Authority to DGCA Arun Kumar stated.

A top government source told ANI, “At present, the decision to resume commercial flights to Kabul is being reviewed by the DGCA, Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA), Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) along with the competent authority.”

The Afghanistan Civil Aviation Authority (ACAA) has also requested the Indian authorities to resume the commercial flight services of the national carrier of Afghanistan between India and Kabul.

“The intention of this letter is to keep the smooth passenger movement between two countries based on the signed MoU and our national carriers (Ariana Afghan airlines and Kam Air) aimed to commence their scheduled flights. Therefore, Afghanistan civil aviation authority requests you to facilitate their commercial flights.” the ACAA letter stated.

India’s national carrier Air India operated its last commercial flight to Kabul was on August 15 amid turmoil in the city.

Flight operations in Afghanistan came to a halt after the Taliban takeover of Kabul last month. The domestic flights were resumed on September 5.

Pakistan’s state-run Pakistan International Airlines was the first airline to operate the first international charter flight to Afghanistan on September13, after the Taliban takeover.