Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) is preparing to restart flight operations to the United Kingdom this month, nearly four years after its services were suspended.
The Pakistan High Commission in London confirmed the development on Friday in an announcement posted on X, stating that the Civil Aviation Authority UK had issued the Foreign Aircraft Operating Permit (FOP) — the final approval required for PIA to resume commercial flights.
“High Commissioner [Dr Muhammad Faisal] is grateful to the Civil Aviation Authority UK for issuing the Foreign Aircraft Operating Permit (FOP) today, the final document enabling commercial flights between the UK and Pakistan,” the post read.
The High Commission noted that PIA had already secured the Third Country Operator (TCO) approval for UK operations. In the first phase, services will restart with flights to Manchester, followed by Birmingham and London.
The clearance follows a series of regulatory steps in recent months. In July, the UK removed Pakistan from its Air Safety List, allowing domestic airlines to apply for British routes. More recently, the UK Department for Transport concluded a security inspection at Islamabad International Airport, declaring Pakistan’s aviation security “satisfactory and in line with international standards.”
PIA’s flights to Europe, the UK, and the United States were banned in June 2020, shortly after an Airbus A-320 crash in Karachi’s Model Colony killed nearly 100 people. The tragedy prompted the grounding of 262 pilots whose licences were described as “dubious” by then-aviation minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan.
The European Union lifted its ban on PIA in November 2024, paving the way for the airline’s return to Western routes.
