Back in the 1980s....this airline ‘seat-game’ was exercised in Zimbabwe. The gov’t start to dictate x-number of seats had to be used for gov’t VIPs exiting the country. This would occur suddenly without warning....leaving the airline with angry tourists stuck there for several days.
My humble guess is that various men have been dictated to cooperate (leaving their family members as hostage members) while working for cheap labor in some neighboring country. This would require the ‘seat-game’ to be exercised and could screw the airline over with last-minute changes.
This is the Taliban’s ‘turf’ so whatever they desire...they get. If the airlines are that unhappy...just halt operations for 30 days and see how willing they are to re-establish flight operations.
You are right. These are tough guys and they are brutally competent. One must respect their clear-headed will to power. That we were led by patriots with such an iron will