Straight Line of the Day: Have you considered Afghanistan for your next vacation?

Effort To Attract International Airlines to Afghanistan Underway
Aionline.com | Peter Shaw-Smith | July 21, 2022

A country risk profile published by Texas A&M University in April assessed Afghanistan’s risk level as ‘Extreme.’

“Travel is unsafe due to the unstable security situation involving armed conflict, terrorism, crime, and civil unrest,” it said. “There is an extreme risk to personal safety and security because of widespread military operations, terrorism and insurgent attacks, and high levels of kidnappings, hostage-taking, suicide bombings, landmines, and vehicle-borne or other improvised explosive devices. Due to extensive warlordism and lawlessness, Afghanistan has long been beset by weak governance in many regions.”

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“Who will fly there? Who, commercially, is interested in going there?”

He said that in all aspects of airport operations, GAAC would need assistance from overseas companies to restart operations, and those entities might see Afghanistan as a risk not worth taking. “[GAAC] simply don’t have enough of the expertise required to operate an airport safely,” Miles said.

Asked to assess GAAC’s prospects of winning international support for its efforts in Afghanistan, Aslam was sanguine. “There will always be nay-sayers,” he said. “The reality may be different, but that doesn’t mean there are no challenges.”