Pakistan’s national flag carrier on Thursday suspended flight operations to Afghanistan due to what it termed “security concerns”, hours after the Taliban Government threatened to ban the airline unless it reduced the fare on the Kabul-Islamabad route to previous levels.
A spokesperson for the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) confirmed the development, saying Kabul operations of the airline will remain suspended until further notice.
There are currently two airline carriers — PIA and Afghanistan’s Kam Air — which operate chartered flights to Kabul with high fares.