Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) plans to resume direct flights to the United Kingdom later this month, the Pakistan High Commission in London announced on Friday.
In a statement, the High Commission noted the U.K. Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) had issued the Foreign Aircraft Operating Permit (FOP), the final clearance required for commercial operations between the U.K. and Pakistan. Thanking the U.K. CAA for its cooperation, Pakistan’s High Commissioner to the U.K. Mohammad Faisal noted that PIA had already secured the Third Country Operator approval.
In the first phase, read the statement, flight operations to Manchester would resume, followed by flights to Birmingham and London.
“PIA’s resumption to the U.K. will facilitate the more than 1.7 million Pakistani diaspora to travel conveniently to Pakistan,” it added.
Last month, the PIA announced that it had received TCO certification from U.K. authorities, paving the way for the resumption of operations to Britain as early as next month.
PIA was banned from operating direct flights to destinations in the U.K. and Europe following the “fake license” scandal of 2020. A year later, Pakistan was placed on the U.K.’s Air Safety List. Since then, Pakistani and British aviation regulators have been working to address all deficiencies.
Earlier this year, the U.K.’s Air Safety Committee announced Pakistan’s removal from the Air Safety List, noting the decision followed sustained technical cooperation with the PCAA and a thorough review of safety oversight standards. The European Union had lifted the ban on PIA last year, leading to PIA operating its first direct flight from Islamabad to Paris in January of this year.