Pakistan International Airlines resumes EU flights after four-year hiatus

Despite this progress in Europe, the United Kingdom Civil Aviation Administration has not yet allowed PIA to resume flights to the UK. Representatives of the UK's Department for Transport are expected to visit Pakistan in mid-January before potentially lifting the ban that has been in place since June 2020.

When banned by EASA and subsequently by the UK CAA, PIA continued marketing flights using chartered services provided by Hi Fly until November 2022. Prior to these bans, PIA operated several routes across Europe and the UK.

The initial ban on PIA followed a scandal involving pilot licenses. In June 2020, it was revealed that many pilots had fake licenses or had cheated during exams. Ghulam Sarwar Khan, then Federal Minister for Aviation of Pakistan, reported that over 260 of Pakistan's active commercial pilot licenses were either fake or obtained through cheating. A spokesperson for PIA confirmed that about 150 out of its 434 pilots had suspicious licenses.