Taliban Request India for Flight Resumption, Decision Under Review: Report

Sep. 29—The decision to resume commercial flights to Kabul is being jointly reviewed by the Directorate General of Civil aviation and the external affairs ministry, a top government source told news agency ANI. Early this month, on September 6, the civil aviation of Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan wrote to the DGCA urging the resumption of 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, according to ANI report. The decision is under review, a government source told ANI.

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"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.

The letter was written by Afghanistan's Acting Minister for Civil Aviation and Transport Alhaj Hamidullah Akhundzada.

India operated the last commercial flight to Afghanistan on August 15, the day the Capital fell to the Taliban. The following evacuation was carried out by the Army planes. The airspace of the country was closed for commercial flights till September 5, when domestic flights were resumed. Pakistan International Airlines was the first airline to operate the first international charter flight to Afghanistan on September 13, after the Taliban takeover.

Air India and SpiceJet used to operate flights between Delhi and Kabul, though Air India's Kabul flights were suspended in the wake of the pandemic in March 2020.

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