Nearly a month after the Taliban took over Afghanistan, the first international commercial flight landed in Kabul on Monday.

A Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) plane carrying a handful of passengers touched down at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on Monday, according to news agency AFP.

“There was hardly anyone on the plane, around 10 people… maybe more staff than passengers,” said an AFP journalist aboard the flight from Islamabad.

The PIA was keen to resume regular commercial services between Pakistan and Afghanistan, a spokesperson for the airline told AFP. However, he said it was too soon to say how frequently the flights would operate.

After the Taliban took over Kabul on August 15, many commercial airlines refused to fly over the Afghan airspace. Only evacuation flights were allowed to use the Kabul airport during the period.

The Kabul airport was at the center of evacuation led by the US as more than 120,000 people, including many Afghans, left the country in a hurry. The evacuation ended with the withdrawal of US troops on August 30.

After taking control of the Kabul airport, the Taliban sought technical assistance from Qatar and Turkey to make the airport operational again.

According to AFP, Qatar Airways operated several charter flights out of Kabul last week, carrying mostly foreigners and Afghans who missed out on the evacuation before August 30.

An Afghan airline resumed domestic services on September 3.

(With inputs from AFP)

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