Pakistan International Airlines will resume commercial flights to Saudi Arabia to bring back Pakistani citizens stranded in the country, local media reported on Monday.
The move comes after Saudi Arabia's General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) announced that non-Saudis will be allowed to leave the kingdom in chartered flights.
Dawn quoted PIA spokesman Abdullah Hafeez saying that the national flag carrier would operate flights to bring back Pakistanis stranded in Saudi Arabia.
He said that one-way operation of flights would be a financial burden on the PIA, but bringing back stranded Pakistanis was also inevitable.
The spokesman said that PIA would carry cargo from Pakistan to Saudi Arabia.
In a circular, Saudi Arabia's General Authority of Civil Aviation said that airlines were now permitted to carry non-Saudi passengers outside the kingdom, taking into account precautionary measures to prevent the spread of the new variant of Covid-19.