Pakistan flight departs for Paris after EU ban lifted

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s state-owned airline, plagued by a past of deadly crashes and a aviator licence scandal, resumed flights to Europe connected Friday aft a four-year prohibition was lifted by EU regulators.

The Pakistan International Airlines formation took disconnected from Islamabad astir 1240 p.m. (0740 GMT) heading for Paris, AFP journalists saw, becoming the lone bearer to connection a nonstop way to and from the European Union.

“This is the archetypal clip I americium travelling with PIA,“ said rider Shumaila Rana, a 38-year-old schoolhouse teacher surviving successful Germany.

“I’m tense and I’m having a batch of anxiety, but I’m hoping it’s gonna beryllium a bully flight.”

Debt-ridden PIA was banned successful June 2020 from flying to the European Union, United Kingdom and the United States, a period aft 1 of its Airbus A-320s plunged into a Karachi street, sidesplitting astir 100 people.

The catastrophe was attributed to quality mistake by the pilots and aerial postulation control, and was followed by allegations that astir a 3rd of the licences for its pilots were fake oregon dubious.

In 2016, a PIA level burst into flames aft 1 of its 2 turboprop engines failed during a formation from the distant northbound to Islamabad, sidesplitting much than 40 people.

In November, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency announced it had lifted the ban, nevertheless it remains barred from flying successful the UK and the United States.

At the time, it said it had “re-established capable confidence” successful the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority’s oversight capabilities.

The hose flies to aggregate cities wrong Pakistan, including the mountainous north, arsenic good arsenic to the Gulf and Southeast Asia.

Hopes pinned connected privatisation

PIA, which employs 7,000 people, has agelong been accused of being bloated and poorly tally -- hobbled by unpaid bills, a mediocre information grounds and regulatory issues.

Pakistan’s authorities has said it is committed to privatising the debt-ridden hose and has been scrambling to find a buyer.

Late past year, a woody fell done aft a imaginable purchaser reportedly offered a fraction of the asking price.

The authorities hopes the opening of European routes, which officials expect volition beryllium followed by a akin announcement by the UK aboriginal this year, volition boost its selling potential.

PIA posted losses of $270 cardinal successful 2023, according to section media. Its liabilities were astir $3 billion, astir 5 times the full worthy of its assets.

In the aforesaid year, amid a nationalist economical crisis, dozens of home flights were cancelled erstwhile it could not spend substance for its planes.

PIA came into being successful 1955 erstwhile the authorities nationalised a loss-making commercialized airline, and enjoyed accelerated maturation until the 1990s.