Pakistan’s first privately owned commercial airport has been formally opened near the northeast city of Sialkot.

Sialkot International Airport was officially opened 11 December by Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf. State-owned Pakistan International Airlines is now operating twice-weekly passenger services to and from Karachi.

The airport has a 3,600m (11,810ft)-long runway which the Government says is the longest in the country. It is on a 1,050-acre (425Ha) site 14km west of Sialkot, which the airport’s private operator describes as being in the middle of Pakistan’s key export areas.

Musharraf personally approved the construction of the airport to handle passenger and cargo traffic in February 2001 and that same month a memorandum of understanding was signed for the project between the Sialkot Chamber of Commer

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