ISLAMABAD: Pakistan International Airlines’ (PIA) flight has arrived in Manchester from Islamabad, marking the first flight after a five-year suspension of services.
According to a PIA spokesperson, a Boeing 777 aircraft departed from Islamabad and landed at Manchester Airport at 5 p.m. local time after a nonstop five-hour journey. The flight was warmly received by a large number of Pakistanis at the airport, who chanted “Pakistan Zindabad” upon its arrival.
A day before the resumption, Federal Minister for Aviation and Defence Khawaja Asif formally inaugurated PIA’s renewed UK flight operations in a ceremony also attended by British High Commissioner Jane Marriott.
The airline’s flights to the UK had been suspended in 2022 after then Aviation Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan disclosed in Parliament that several Pakistani pilots were holding fake licenses. The revelation led the European Union and the United Kingdom to impose a ban on PIA’s operations.
