From May, PIA expects to restart direct flights to US

The spokesperson of the national flag carrier, Abdullah Hafeez stated that from May this year, PIA (Pakistan International Airline) is looking forward to restart direct flights to the United States “subject to a final clearance by the US Transportation Administration”. 

The spokesman of PIA said that we had sorted out and arranged all the recommendations of the transport authority like adding screening machines at big airports which includes Karachi and Islamabad. 

He further stated that for two years, discussions had been going between the US administration and the national airline of Pakistan, including “from our end we have taken all measures that were advised”. 

He said that a delegation of the transport authority of US is awaiting to issue a final consent in May. 

Mr. Abdullah Hafeez added that PIA had earlier prepared a flight plan that states initially three direct flights a week will fly to New York and the number will be extended as the time passes. 

As claimed by the PIA official, the transport security authority of the United States had supervised an audit of security order of the fleet of PIA and major airports of the country. In this regard, US homeland security had also visited Pakistan. 

Inferable from security concerns, the US didn't permit any non-stop flight that began at a Pakistani air terminal into its airspace. In October 2017, the PIA had ended its flights to the US on account of rising operational expenses and in an offer to cut misfortunes it had been confronting.