Kabul, Afghanistan reopens to limited traffic

Kabul Hamid Karzai International Airport has reopened to limited commercial and military traffic despite being besieged by thousands of Afghans eager to flee the country in the wake of the Taliban takeover.

A NOTAM issued on August 17 said that prior permission is required from NATO’s ISAF force before any aircraft can land at the airport. Operators must do so within 30 minutes of the PPR being approved, otherwise they should file a new request. Barring an emergency, no aircraft may land without the requisite PPR.

Operations have now been restricted to Visual Flight Rules (VFR) given that no aeronautical services are currently available, and any aircraft that do land must tanker in fuel as none is currently available given the circumstances.

While the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy, France, and Germany have been busy using military transports to evacuate their interests, other countries such as India, Pakistan, and Indonesia have held off, pending an improvement in the security situation around the airfield.