KARACHI: A pivotal meeting of the UK Air Safety Committee is scheduled for March 20 to evaluate the five-year ban on Pakistan’s national airline and other carriers, according to officials from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).
The committee will review the status of all Pakistani airlines, including Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), and discuss the possibility of lifting the restrictions.
The ban was imposed in July 2020 by UK and European aviation authorities following the revelation of the fake pilot licence scandal. However, Pakistani authorities are optimistic that the restrictions may be lifted after tomorrow’s review.
In 2020, during the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government, former aviation minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan disclosed that many pilots had been operating with fraudulent licences. This followed a deadly crash of PIA’s Airbus A-320 in Karachi that killed nearly 100 people, prompting the suspension of flights by PIA and other Pakistani carriers to the European Union, UK, and the United States.
The ban resulted in a significant loss of revenue for the already struggling PIA, costing the airline around Rs40 billion ($144 million) annually.
In January 2025, after a long hiatus, PIA resumed its first direct flight from Islamabad to Paris, marking a long-awaited return to European skies.
Looking ahead to the UK market, PIA spokesperson Abdullah Hafeez Khan stated that, if cleared by the Department for Transport (DfT), flights to London, Manchester, and Birmingham would be high-demand routes.
Despite holding a 23% share of Pakistan’s domestic aviation market, PIA’s 34-plane fleet struggles to compete with Middle Eastern carriers, which control 60% of the market, partly due to the absence of direct flights and the airline’s inability to capitalize on agreements with 87 countries and key landing slots.
