Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has decided to resume flight to the United Kingdom (UK) after Pakistan came off UK’s red list.
The national carrier decided to start chartered flights to the UK. It was learnt that PIA will operate flights to Manchester and London from Islamabad through a chartered company.
Earlier in the day, the United Kingdom (UK) removed Pakistan from its travel red list after the British authorities updated its travel advisory.
According to details, Pakistan, Turkey, Bangladesh, Maldives and Oman are among eight countries that came off the UK red list in the recent review. Pakistan and other countries are included in the rest of the world list.
UK’s Secretary of State for Transport also confirmed the move from his Twitter handle.
“Pleased to confirm Pakistan is off the red list. I know how difficult the last 5 months were for so many who rely on close links between Pakistan & UK,” he wrote on his official Twitter handle on Friday.
“From Oct 4, if you’re fully [vaccinated] you won’t need a pre-departure test before arrival into England from a non-red country and from later in Oct, will be able to replace the day 2 PCR test with a cheaper lateral flow,” he added.
Pakistan had been retained on UK’s red list in the updated travel advisory for countries barred from flying into the kingdom in early April and India followed on April 19 due to surging case numbers and the emergence of the Delta variant.
British lawmakers had also criticised their government for keeping Pakistan on its ‘red list’ whilst promoting India to the ‘amber list’ for international travel despite a clear difference in the COVID-19 situation in both countries.
