Turkey's Pegasus airline announces flights to Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Turkish private airline company Pegasus on Saturday announced plans to launch flights to Pakistan, ARY News reported.

According to a statement issued by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), the Pegasus airline will launch flights to Pakistan from March 28.

The air transport department of CAA has issued an official travel notification to Turkish airline Pegasus for flight operation.  The Turkish carrier will fly between Karachi and Istanbul four times a week, said CAA in a statement.

The move comes following the Turkish President Erdogan’s successful visit to Pakistan.

Earlier, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) will start direct flights to the United States (US) from April 2020 as the preparations have been entered into its final phase.

Read: PIA resumes flight operation for Malaysia

Sources told ARY News that the national flag-carrier will initiate direct flights between Pakistan-US from the month of April next year and the PIA administration sought permission from the American officials for it besides providing related documents and plans.

Sources added that PIA will utilise its long-range Boeing 777 aircraft for the flight operation to the US. It is pertinent to mention here that a team of homeland security of US had visited Pakistan to overview of the arrangements for direct flights at Islamabad and Karachi airports.

In March last year, American authorities had green- lightened Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) for the direct flight operations to the United States (US).

The development follows, after a meeting of the Consul General of the United States of America JoAnne Wagner with the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) CEO Arshad Malik, at the PIA headquarters.