PIA resumes Manchester service as UK lifts five-year flight ban

Currently, PIA operates six 777-200ERs and two 777-200LRs. The airline's 777-200ER can accommodate 329 passengers across three classes: business class, economy plus, and economy class.

During the ban period starting June 2020, PIA was allowed to market flights to the UK using chartered services by Hi Fly. These flights continued until November 2022 when operations were halted temporarily.

The UK's decision comes six months after the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) ended a four-year ban on PIA. On January 10, 2025, a PIA Boeing 777-200ER flew from Islamabad to Paris Charles De Gaulle Airport for the first time since 2020. The airline now operates twice-weekly flights between these destinations and recently launched nonstop direct flights between Lahore and Paris.

In June 2020, EASA banned both PIA and Blue Air following revelations about pilot license irregularities in Pakistan. Ghulam Sarwar Khan, former Federal Minister for Aviation of Pakistan, informed Parliament that many pilots held fake licenses or cheated during exams.

Following a May 2020 crash near Karachi Jinnah International Airport involving a PIA Airbus A320 that resulted in significant casualties, investigations into pilot licenses began. It was found that more than 260 out of Pakistan’s active commercial pilot licenses were either fake or obtained through cheating.