Islamabad airport cancels 8 flights due to internet flaw

At least eight domestic and international flights at Islamabad's Benazir Bhutto International Airport were cancelled on Sunday due to internet disruptions caused by a submarine cable fault.

The internet was slow due to a fault in the India-Middle East-Western Europe submarine cable, and that caused the cancellation of flights, airport officials told Dawn News.

An official said flight schedules and ticket booking could not be confirmed due to the fault.

It is difficult to tell when the flight schedule will be back to normal, the officials said, adding that flights would resume fully when internet services are restored.

The domestic Islamabad-Karachi, Karachi-Islamabad, and six international flights -- to Dubai, Manchester, Madina, Madina-Islamabad, Dubai-Islamabad, Jeddah-Islamabad -- were cancelled.

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority and Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) have not specified how long it will take to restore internet services in the country.

The PTCL spokesperson earlier said Jeddah has begun efforts to repair the cable. But "restoring the network will take some time", he said.

Two other submarine cables, SEA-ME-WE 4 and TW1, have been offline since last month due to similar flaws, and this has resulted in a bottleneck.