Karachi, Dec 11: Just days after Pakistan and India lifted their two-year suspension on air links, Pakistan International Airlines announced today it will begin operating six flights a week to two Indian cities in January. PIA's Marketing Director, Kamran Hasan, said the airline also plans to boost its total flights to India to 12 in March, the same number it flew before the ban was imposed due to strained relations. Beginning the first week of January, the airline will operate two flights each on its Karachi-New Delhi, Karachi-Mumbai and Lahore-New Delhi routes, Hasan said.
Earlier this month, as part of confidence-building measures, India and Pakistan agreed to restore airline overflight and landing rights by Jan 1, two years after the nuclear-armed rivals cut all transportation links amid tensions that took them to the brink of war. Hasan said PIA, Pakistan's state-run airline, also plans to resume six flights to three other South Asian destinations in January: two to the Bangladesh capital, Dhaka; two to Sri Lanka's capital, Colombo; and two to Nepal's capital, Katmandu. PIA closed these flights because they were too costly when India barred Pakistani overflights in early 2002.
Bureau Report