Officials say the situation for Pakistani pilgrims traveling in Jeddah, Mecca and Medina remains stable
Pakistani missions in Saudi Arabia on Sunday launched 24-hour helplines and deployed teams at major airports to help travelers following disruptions to flight schedules amid the ongoing Gulf crisis, Radio Pakistan reported.
The ongoing conflict in the Middle East has disrupted air travel, affecting Pakistani Umrah pilgrims and other passengers traveling to Saudi Arabia, officials said.
According to the government, the Pakistani Embassy in Riyadh and the Consulate General of Pakistan in Jeddah have established 24-hour helplines and deployed teams at regional airports to assist Pakistani travelers.
The measures were taken on the instructions of the Government of Pakistan to facilitate the passengers amid disruptions caused by the regional security situation.
Officials said the situation for Pakistani pilgrims and travelers in Jeddah, Mecca and Medina remains stable.
But minor operational restrictions and precautionary risk advisories are currently in place in parts of the regional airspace because of the ongoing conflict, authorities said.
Tensions in the Middle East escalated sharply after US and Israeli airstrikes last week assassinated Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and several senior officials, triggering a wave of retaliation from Tehran and widening the conflict across the region.
Read: 578 flights canceled in 5 days amid Middle East tensions
In response to the attacks, Iran launched retaliatory strikes on US military bases in several Gulf countries, significantly expanding the scope of the confrontation.
Pakistan’s international airports had experienced widespread cancellations due to ongoing regional tensions in the Gulf. More than 570 flights to Gulf countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar, have been canceled since February 28.
The airlines affected included Emirates, Etihad Airways, Air Arabia, Pakistan International Airlines, Airblue, Flydubai and Qatar Airways.
On Wednesday, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary Ishaq Dar said the government had taken comprehensive steps to provide relief to Pakistanis stranded in Iran and other Gulf countries.
Read more: Pakistan fully restores flight operations to Saudi Arabia
He said special facilitation counters had been set up to help returning Pakistani nationals. Pakistan’s embassy in Abu Dhabi and consulates in Jeddah and Dubai actively assisted Pakistani nationals, while similar arrangements had also been established in Tehran, Zahedan and Mashhad.
Officials said disruptions and airspace closures in several Gulf countries had caused Pakistan an estimated revenue shortfall of Rs20 billion.
Globally, the crisis has led to large-scale disruptions in air travel. Despite governments and airlines arranging special flights to evacuate travelers stranded in the region, more than 13,000 flights have been canceled internationally.
According to aviation analytics firm Cirium, flights in the region account for around 900,000 seats each day, indicating that the number of affected travelers could already exceed one million.
