British airline ends flight operation in Pakistan

KARACHI: A British airline, Crawley-based Virgin Atlantic has completely closed its flight operation in Pakistan and its last flight was departed from Islamabad to London today, ARY News reported on Sunday.

Flight VS-379, B-789 flew from Islamabad International Airport at 1:08 pm today to London’s Heathrow Airport.

ورجن اٹلانٹک کی اسلام آباد انٹرنیشنل ایئرپورٹ سے آخری پرواز لندن روانہ#ARYNews pic.twitter.com/QRugyXoDCx

— ARY NEWS (@ARYNEWSOFFICIAL) July 9, 2023

Virgin Atlantic had commenced its flight operation in Pakistan in December 2020 with seven flights in a week from Islamabad airport.

READ: British Airways, Virgin Atlantic limit ticket sales to Heathrow

In the initial phase, the British airline operated four flights to Manchester and three to London’s Heathrow Airport. Later, the number of flights was reduced to three in a week only for Heathrow Airport.

During its flight, the airline provided the best travel facilities to the passengers.

The COO and Airport Manager of Islamabad airport Syed Aftab Gilani thanked the British airline’s team for providing the best facilities to the passengers and expressed hopes that Virgin Atlantic would resume its flight operations in Pakistan in the future.

Last month, the airline’s spokesperson said that the flight operation was started amid the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 from London to Islamabad and Lahore, as well as Manchester to Islamabad.

READ: Kazakhstan Airlines launches flights to Pakistan

The spokesperson added that Virgin Atlantic is going to increase its flying programme in 2023. The airline said that they reviewed the whole flight network and decided to make some changes which led to the suspension of London to Pakistan flights.

In another development today, Canadian private airline Zara Airways announced to start direct flights from Toronto to three major cities in Pakistan this year.

Talking exclusively to ARY News, CEO Syed Quli said that the airline was seeking a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the Canadian government before it can start operations.

READ: First Virgin Atlantic flight lands at Islamabad airport

He further said that the airline will operate three weekly flights from Toronto to Karachi, Islamabad and Lahore.

The CEO further said that airliner will use two Boeing 777 aircraft initially and may increase the number of aircraft depending on demand.

In recent months, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has approved Wizz Air Abu Dhabi and SunExpress to operate flights in Pakistan.

Additionally, Ethiopian Airlines has announced the resumption of direct flights between Karachi and Addis Ababa. The route was previously suspended in 2004.