LONDON:
Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has formally requested the Coordination Limited (ACL) airport, the Global Airport Skraps Coordinator, to lease two of its Heathrow London tragamoneas from London to the Saudi airlines for the 2025 summer season, confirmed a spokesman Sunday.
The lease application follows the continuous restrictions of PIA in the United Kingdom and the United States, despite the European Union Aviation Security Agency (EASA), raising a four -year prohibition of the airline in November 2024 . Rules, after a Karachi plane crash that killed 97 people and investigation into irregularities of pilot license.
PIA spokesman Abdullah Hafeez Khan told Arab News that the airline has sought an “exchange of slots” of the LCA, allowing Saudi airlines to use Heathrow slots from April 5 to October 25, 2025. April.
Since he faced European restrictions, PIA has used a “child care option” to retain their Heathrow slots when they lease them to Turkish airlines, Saudi airlines and Vietnam airlines. The airline previously contained 10 Heathrow slots, with six leases to the Turkish airlines and two each Saudia and Vietnam Airlines.
Although Pia has resumed flights to Europe, including a recent Islamabad-Paris service, it is still excluded from the United Kingdom and the United States. Last month, a delegation from the Department of Civil Transportation and Aviation of the United Kingdom visited Pakistan to evaluate aviation security protocols. The United Kingdom Security Review Board will decide PIA’s operational authorization at a meeting scheduled for March 12.
“If Pakistan receives permission to resume his own flights to the United Kingdom, we will gradually claim these spaces for our own operations,” Khan said.
Meanwhile, PIA continues to fight with financial instability. The airline full of the debt, which recorded losses of $ 270 million in 2023 and has liabilities about $ 3 billion, remains a key objective for privatization by the Pakistani government. An earlier attempt to sell the airline failed after a potential buyer offered significantly less than the sale price.
Officials expect the reopening of European routes to alla the road to new operational recoveries, which potentially leads to future expansion in the United Kingdom market.
