FIA system failure causes long queues at airports

The Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) immigration system remained suspended for around an hour at airports across Pakistan on Tuesday,

The Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) immigration system remained suspended for around an hour at airports across Pakistan on Tuesday, causing long queues at immigration counters and disrupting the departure of international flights.

The disruption affected Jinnah International Airport in Karachi and other airports across the country. The suspension temporarily halted the immigration process, leaving passengers waiting in long lines to complete the necessary formalities before boarding their flights.

According to Jinnah International Airport officials, the immigration process was temporarily suspended after the FIA system experienced a technical failure. Officials confirmed that the system went down simultaneously at airports nationwide, affecting passengers travelling on international flights.

The outage also affected the departure schedule of international flights as passengers faced delays in completing immigration checks. The disruption caused inconvenience to travellers, particularly those waiting at immigration counters to complete departure procedures.

Airport officials said the FIA immigration system began to recover gradually after remaining suspended for approximately one hour. The restoration of the system allowed immigration operations to resume and passengers to proceed with the required formalities.

However, the FIA did not disclose the reasons behind the system failure despite being contacted for comment. The cause of the nationwide disruption therefore remained unclear.

The incident has raised concerns about the reliability of the immigration system, as a technical failure can affect airport operations and cause delays for a large number of passengers.

According to sources, the FIA immigration system had also experienced a similar outage at Jinnah International Airport around two weeks ago. The recurrence of the problem has drawn attention to the need for a reliable immigration system to ensure the smooth processing of passengers and minimise disruptions to flight operations.

Further details about the cause of Tuesday’s outage and the measures being taken to prevent similar incidents were not immediately available.