Talks on outsourced Afghan airport ops still ongoing: Taliban

Kabul, Feb 18: The Taliban government in Afghanistan has said that talks on running the technical operations of five major airports in the country are yet to be finalised with Turkish and Qatari companies. In a statement, the Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation (MoTCA) said the involved parties were discussing the legal aspects of the contracts, reports TOLO News.

According to MoTCA, a technical team from Afghanistan recently visited Doha to hold talks, but the final decision has yet to be made. "The technical team of the MoTCA is still talking about handing over the technical activities of Kabul airport with technical teams of Turkey and Qatar," Ministry spokesman Imamuddin Ahmadi said on Thursday.

Since the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban in August last year, regular commercial flights have been suspended in the country. Now with the handover of the Kabul, Herat, Kandahar, Mazar, and Mazar airports to foreign companies, optimism about the resumption of these flights has increased.