Kabul Airport reopens for domestic flights and to receive aid

Kabul Airport is now open again for domestic flights and to receive aid, a few days after a team of Qatari engineers repaired parts of the airport traffic control system and its assessed operability.

Afghanistan’s flag carrier, Ariana Afghan Airlines, announced on their Facebook page that flights have restarted between Kabul and three major provincial cities in the country: Kandahar in the south, Mazar-i-Sharif in the north, and Herat in the west.

However, Kabul Airport is not ready yet for international civilian flights, as the airport is operating without radar or navigation systems.

“There’s no radar, no navigational systems in place,” said Ghirlandaio Jailani Wafa, a top aviation official at Kabul Airport to Washington Post. 

Wafa said that after Qatari engineers set up temporary radio communications systems between air traffic controllers and pilots last week, a few domestic flights were able to resume. Pilots, however, have to visually navigate flights’ landings and take-offs. 

Wafa said that international commercial flights will not likely resume before radar and navigation systems are fully operational.