Ariana Afghan Airlines set to resume int’l flights

Ariana Afghan Airlines’s new Taliban-appointed chief executive has told Turkey’s Anadolu news agency that the carrier is striving to restart international flights to Delhi Int’l later this month.

Qari Rahmatullah Gulzad underlined that Ariana’s prompt restart has been made possible due to the support provided by technical teams from Turkey and Qatar, which helped rebuild and secure Kabul airport following the collapse of the US-backed government on August 15 and the subsequent chaotic evacuation conducted by Western military forces.

“We have been faced by huge challenges… but we can now say that the airport is fit for navigation,” Qatar’s envoy to Afghanistan Mutlaq al-Qahtani said.

Gulzad added that while flights to Delhi would be the first to restart in the coming days, Ariana was already in talks with authorities to resume services to Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia. He provided no further details concerning the exact destinations or launch timelines. He underlined that the talks were reciprocal, hinting at a possible launch of flights to Afghanistan by foreign carriers, although none has committed to that so far.

Ariana Afghan Airlines resumed domestic operations on September 3, 2021, and currently connects Kabul with Herat, Kandahar, and Mazar i Sharif.

Meanwhile, Qatar Airways operated the first civilian flight to Kabul since the Taliban takeover on September 9, 2021. The carrier deployed a B777-300(ER), A6-BEO (msn 64065), to conduct an evacuation flight for Western citizens leaving Afghanistan. A total of 113 passengers flew to Doha Hamad Int’l ahead of a further transit to their countries of destination.