Pakistan’s state-run airline to resume flights to Europe in January after EU agency lifted ban

Pakistan’s state-run airline is preparing to resume direct flights to European countries early next month, officials said Thursday, days after the European Union’s aviation safety agency lifted a ban on Pakistan International Airlines flying to Europe over compliance with its safety standards. The ban on PIA by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency had been in place since 2020 after 97 people died when a PIA plane crashed in Karachi, the capital of southern Sindh province. The ban was causing a loss of nearly $150m a year in revenue to PIA, officials say. Airline spokesman Abdullah Hafeez said after more than four years the first direct flight from the capital Islamabad to Paris will resume in early January. He told The Associated Press that EASA has expressed “complete satisfaction over the safety standards of PIA” and that arrangements are underway to resume PIA’s flights to other cities in the European countries. The EU agency had said it was “concerned about the validity of the Pakistani pilot licenses” when it imposed the ban in 2020. It said it was concerned about Pakistan’s capability in certifying and overseeing its operators and aircraft in accordance with applicable international standards.<br/>