KARACHI: Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) will resume its flights to the UK after a two-year ban, sources told JEE News on Monday.
Sources said that a five-member delegation of the Civil Aviation Authority has left for Brussels on October 25 to meet the officials of the European Commission and the International Aviation Safety Assessment (IASA).
Sources further said that the European authorities had called the CAA for a technical meeting. The delegation will brief the authorities on licensing, access and registration.
The European Commission and IASA will visit Pakistan in 2023 to review the steps taken by the airline. Operations will be resumed once the Commission and IASA are satisfied.
The visit to Pakistan is a condition for PIA to resume its flights to European countries.
Due to the ban in European countries since July 2020, PIA has suffered a loss of Rs 150 billion.
The UK Civil Aviation Authority suspended PIA’s flight operations over concerns that Pakistan was “incapable of certifying and supervising its airline operators”.
The decision came after the grounding of 262 Pakistani pilots whose licenses were termed “suspicious” by former aviation minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan.
