PIA resumes flights to Paris after 4.5 years: A gateway to revival

Islamabad International Airport (IIAP) saw the departure of the first flight of the national carrier to Europe after four and half years. Pakistan International Airlines’ (PIA) flight PK-749 took off on Friday Afternoon carrying 330 passengers and 14 crew members, as per Express Tribune.

The moratorium in PIA’s services to Europe came about as a direct consequence of a post-crash speech by then-minister Ghulam Sarwar, who had claimed without any evidence that 40 percent of PIA’s pilots were flying with fraudulent licenses. Mr. Sarwar’s speech detrimentally impacted the airlines credibility and the airline lost its goodwill with customers which it had earned over the years.

Nevertheless, after PIA flight 8303 crashed in Karachi, the company lost the rights to fly to various high traffic destinations such as the United States, Canada and the European Union (EU). Aviation Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif conceded that the national carrier had lost ‘hundreds of billions’ of rupees over the four and a half years when profitable routes remained closed off to Pakistani airlines.

The inaugural flight ceremony was attended by a multitude of high profile senior officials such as the PIA CEO Air Vice Marshal Amir Hayat, Khawaja Asif, director generals of both the Civil Aviation and Pakistan Airport Authority.

Mr. Asif commended the hard work PIA officials have displayed for Europe to reopen its airports to Pakistan. He also expressed great dissatisfaction with his predecessor, the former aviation minister, whose statements Mr. Asif believes negatively impacted the aviation sector.

Mr. Asif also lamented the national carrier’s huge debt burden which stands at a staggering 800 billion rupees which the airline accrued while lucrative routes remained closed.

With the first flight to Paris today serving as the gateway to future operations in the European Union and neighboring countries, PIA is on track to regain some of its former glory. Mr. Asif even announced that PIA will begin flights to the United Kingdom very soon.

The Minister’s aspirations for additional routes aside, PIA intends to operate two flights between Islamabad and Paris a week. The first two flights are already fully booked and PIA is indicating that demand is not expected to slow down.

This is because passengers having to fly to and from Pakistan and France faced excessive costs in the absence of PIA’s flights. However, with an increase in the supply of airlines offering to fly between the two destinations, airfares are expected to drop further.

With PIA in control of lucrative routes and more routes to potentially open up, such as the United Kingdom, the airline could seem more attractive to investors. Speculators are expecting that PIA’s privatization could pick up pace with the company set to generate healthy cash flows in the upcoming periods.