Pakistan's national carrier to terminate flight services to Mumbai from Monday

New Delhi: Pakistan's national carrier PIA will stop flight services between Karachi and Mumbai from Monday, the airlines announced.

Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) operated two weekly flights (Monday and Thursday) between Karachi and Mumbai.

A senior official of the airline told PTI that the decision was taken due to "extremely low" traffic volume on the route.

However, the airline would continue to operate on the Lahore-Delhi sector as traffic volume on this route is satisfactory, the PIA official said.

The flight suspension may add traffic to Lahore-Delhi route, he added.

"There will be no PIA flight between Karachi to Mumbai and Mumbai to Karachi from April 8. The PIA has stopped booking for flights on this route,” PTI quoted the official as saying.

"Since we have been bearing financial loss on this route for the last six months or so we have arrived at a decision to suspend this route," the official said, adding that unless a special subsidy is not given by the government on this route it may not be restored in the near future.

The decision comes amid fresh tensions between India and Pakistan following the beheading of two Indian soldiers by the Pakistan military in Jammu and Kashmir and the capital punishment awarded to Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav on charges of spying.

However, the PIA has dismissed the speculative media reports that the flight suspention was due to tense bilateral relations.

"The reasons behind the move are purely commercial," PTI quoted PIA spokesperson Danyal Gillani as saying.