Britain lifts ban on Pakistani airlines

ISLAMABAD: Britain has lifted restrictions on Pakistani airlines, the British High Commission in Islamabad said on Wednesday, ending a five-year ban on the country’s beleaguered national carrier.

Pakistan International Airlines was barred from flying to Britain in June 2020, a month after one of its aircraft plunged into a Karachi street, killing nearly 100 people.

The disaster was attributed to human error by the pilots and air traffic control, and was followed by allegations that nearly a third of the licences held by its pilots were fake or dubious.

The UK Air Safety Committee decided to lift the ban following improvements in Pakistan’s aviation safety, the High Commission added, noting that decisions on delisting states and air carriers are made through an independent aviation safety process.

‘Based on this independent and technically driven process, it has decided to remove Pakistan and its air carriers from the UK Air Safety List,’ it said.

The move follows the lifting of a four-year ban by European regulators, with the state-owned carrier resuming flights to Europe in January.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif welcomed the decision as ‘an important milestone for the country’.

‘The lifting of the ban on Pakistani flights by the UK is a source of relief for Pakistanis residing in Britain,’ he added.

PIA said it would resume services to Britain ‘in the shortest possible time’, with the first flights operating from Islamabad to Manchester.

Aviation Minister Khawaja Asif acknowledged that the ban had caused losses.

‘Confidence is being restored in Pakistani airlines once again,’ he said at a news conference in Islamabad.

PIA, which employs 7,000 people, has long been accused of being bloated and poorly run, hobbled by unpaid bills, a poor safety record and regulatory issues.

The Pakistani government says it is committed to privatising the debt-ridden airline and is scrambling to find a buyer.

In 2024, a deal fell through after a potential buyer reportedly offered only a fraction of the asking price.

PIA was formed in 1955, when the government nationalised a loss-making commercial airline, and enjoyed rapid growth until the 1990s.

With inputs from AFP