The new Islamabad International airport serving the Pakistani capital opened on May 3, 2018, five years behind the initial schedule, with privately owned AirBlue (PA, Karachi International) operating the maiden flight at the new facility.
The new airport opened for commercial service at 1000LT (0500Z). AirBlue's flight PA200 from Karachi International landed at the new airport shortly afterwards, Flightradar24 ADS-B data shows.
The first departure out of the new airport was scheduled to be a PIA - Pakistan International Airlines (PK, Islamabad International) service to Karachi, but due to the flight's delay, the AirBlue A320 AP-EDA (msn 3974) also departed as the first aircraft.
While on May 3 some carriers, mainly Pakistani, operated some flights from the old Islamabad International airport for operational reasons, Flightradar24 ADS-B data shows that effective May 4, all flights to Islamabad depart from and land at the new airport.
The new airport was originally scheduled to open in 2013. After a series of construction delays, the date of opening has been set for April 16 and later changed to April 20. Due to logistical issues, this has been subsequently postponed to May 3.
The new airport has a capacity of nine million passengers and will fully replace the old facility, which was widely considered one of the worst capital airports in the world. The old Benazir Bhutto airport will continue to be active as a military facility.
