TOBA TEK SINGH: The new runway will be completed by October this year, enabling Boeing 777 to land at Faisalabad International Airport.

This was stated by airport manager Muhammad Anwar Zia at a meeting with FCCI of ficials on Thursday.

He said the air cargo complex was also underconstrucdon and75 percentofthe work would be completed before the run-way becomes operational.

H e expressed satisfaction over the available p a s s e n g e r load and air cargo and said the airport was in a deficit of Rs220million when he was posted here.

`It is now earning a profit of Rs2 billion,` he said and added that presently 102 domestic and international flights are operating from this airport facility in a month. He said that only small planes could land on the old runway, prompting authorities to construct a new runway.

He said a study was conducted to evaluate the passenger load before contacting international airlines. At that time the available passenger load was only 70,000 which jumped to 500,000 and is now expected to cross the mark of 800,000 within the next few years. He said that in a similar pattern, we must calculate the available tonnage of air cargo so that the airlines could be convinced to launch a dedicated air cargo service from this port.

He asked the FCCI to share data on air cargo so that a comprehensive study could be finalised. Four planes can be parked at a time and more facilities will also be arranged af ter calculating the passengers and air cargo shipments, he said.