ISLAMABAD – The Cabinet Committee on Inter-Governmental Commercial Transactions (CCoIGCT) has decided to finalise arrangements with the United Arab Emirates government through a G2G model for the transfer of operations of Islamabad International Airport under a framework agreement.
The decision was taken in a meeting of the CCoIGCT chaired by Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Senator Muhammad Ishaq Dar, on Thursday to deliberate transfer of operations of Islamabad International Airport to the government of the United Arab Emirates.
The meeting was attended by the Minister of Petroleum, the Advisor on Privatization, Special Assistant to Prime Minister Tariq Bajwa, federal secretaries, and senior officials from relevant ministries.
A negotiation committee will be headed by the Prime Minister’s Advisor on Privatization and will include representatives from Ministries of Defence, Finance, Law & Justice, and Privatisation.
Earlier, the parking fees at Islamabad International Airport have been increased, causing frustration among passengers and visitors.
The revised rates have led to frequent arguments between commuters and parking staff, as travelers are voicing concerns over rise in charges.
New Parking Fee at Islamabad Airport
Reports said the fee for the first three hours of parking has been increased from Rs90 to Rs120. After the initial three hours, the per-hour parking charge has also been hiked from Rs50 to Rs70.
This price hike has added to the burden of travelers and their families, many of whom now find it costlier to pick up or drop off passengers at the airport. The situation has reportedly led to regular disputes at the parking area.
Islamabad Airport
The Islamabad airport was inaugurated formally on 20th April 2018 for regular international and domestic flights.
The airport is spread over 19 square kilometres with 15 passenger boarding bridges, including facilities to accommodate two double-decker Airbus A380s, the world’s largest airplane, 15 remote bays and 3 remote bays for Air cargo. For the 15 bays, the same number of lounges have been built to avoid mixing of passengers. The airport has two runways, each 3600-meter long.
The airport is hosting the V-VIPs, VIPs, foreign delegates, and business communities on more frequent basis of being capital airport. It has the capacity to handle 9million passengers.
The airport has seven check-in zones, consist of 112 check-in counters in total, five level security systems for baggage check, a food court, movie theatre, children’s play area and car parking for 2,200 vehicles.
