UK lifts restrictions on Pakistan airlines after five-year ban

The determination comes conscionable months aft the EU lifted its ain prohibition amid Pakistan’s efforts to privatise nationalist bearer PIA.

Britain has lifted a five-year prohibition connected Pakistani airlines, allowing them to use to resume flights to and from the United Kingdom arsenic Pakistan steps up efforts to privatise its beleaguered nationalist carrier, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA).

The UK Air Safety Committee decided to assistance the prohibition aft aviation information improvements successful Pakistan, the British High Commission successful Islamabad said connected Wednesday, adding that decisions connected delisting states and aerial carriers were made “through an autarkic aviation information process”.

“Based connected this autarkic and technically-driven process, it has decided to region Pakistan and its aerial carriers from the [UK Air Safety] List,” the precocious committee said successful a statement.

The determination comes aft the European Union Aviation Safety Agency lifted a four-year prohibition connected PIA, and the Pakistani state-owned bearer resumed flights to Europe successful January.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif welcomed the lifting of the prohibition arsenic “an important milestone for the country”.

“The lifting of the prohibition connected Pakistani flights by the UK is simply a root of alleviation for Pakistanis residing successful Britain,” helium added successful a statement.

Pakistani Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif said astatine a quality league connected Wednesday that resuming each routes would amended PIA’s worth up of its privatisation and determination were plans to restart flights to New York.

Asif besides said helium attributed the prohibition to what helium described arsenic “baseless” remarks made by erstwhile Aviation Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan. He blamed Khan’s mendacious statements and mismanagement during his tenure arsenic aviation curate for the ban. “It was a national-level blunder,” Asif said.

PIA was barred from flying to the UK successful June 2020, a period aft 1 of its craft plunged into a Karachi street, sidesplitting 97 people.

The catastrophe was attributed to quality mistake by the pilots and aerial postulation power and was followed by allegations that astir a 3rd of the licences for its pilots were fake oregon dubious. Pakistan launched an probe to analyse these claims.

While respective backstage Pakistani airlines run domestically and connected determination routes, chiefly to the Middle East, PIA has historically been the lone bearer to run long-haul flights to Britain and the EU.

PIA, which employs 7,000 people, has agelong been accused of being bloated and poorly tally – hobbled by unpaid bills, a mediocre information grounds and regulatory issues.

PIA had antecedently estimated an yearly gross nonaccomplishment of astir 40 cardinal rupees ($144m) owed to the ban. The hose has agelong considered UK routes, including London, Manchester and Birmingham, among its astir profitable and holds sought-after landing slots astatine London’s Heathrow Airport that could go progressive again.

Pakistan’s authorities has said it is committed to privatising the debt-ridden hose and has been scrambling to find a buyer. It is hoping that caller reforms that led to the airline’s archetypal operating nett successful 21 years, volition assistance pull buyers nether a broader International Monetary Fund-backed privatisation push.

In 2024, a woody fell done aft a imaginable purchaser reportedly offered a fraction of the asking price.

This month, Pakistan approved 4 groups to bid for a 51 to 100 percent involvement successful PIA. Final bids are expected aboriginal this year.

PIA was established successful 1955 erstwhile the authorities nationalised a loss-making commercialized airline. It enjoyed accelerated maturation until the 1990s.