Passengers irked over serving meatless meal during PIA flights

KARACHI: Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has stopped serving meat items as an in-flight meal and distributed lentil curry and rice during the flights, irking passengers, ARY NEWS reported.         

According to details, lentil curry, rice and cooked vegetables were served as an in-flight meal among the passengers travelling on a Jeddah-bound flight.

The passengers protested and later lodged their complaints about not being served meat items. “The passengers and the crew got engaged in a heated argument and lamented over the services being provided by the national flag carrier,” the sources having knowledge of the episode said.

They further said that similar complaints have been reported on multiple flights from Islamabad.

PIA spokesman while confirming the developments said that supply from vendors has been affected and therefore the airline could not provide a regular meal to the travellers. “As soon as the supply is restored, we will start serving regular meal during flights,” they said.

In February 2022, the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority Pakistan ordered to lift restrictions over on-flight meal services for domestic flights only, international flights will function under the same regulations.

According to a statement released by the CAA, domestic flights will now be permitted to provide passengers with food and beverages. But the service has only been unbanned for domestic flights.

The in-flight eatery services were suspended for domestic and international flights, to prevent the spread of Covid-19. The domestic passenger were able to get the onboard food services from March 1, 2022.