International connectivity

After six long years, PIA will restart direct flights to London this week, starting with three weekly flights from Islamabad and one per week from Lahore. The resumption of flights is a clear message that the recently privatised airline is ready to change its fortunes.

The UK remains one of the most lucrative countries for PIA, thanks to the large expat population and London's popularity as a tourist destination for wealthier Pakistanis. Although prices for flights are generally similar to, and sometimes higher than, layover flights offered by top-rated Middle Eastern airlines, the convenience of direct flights, coupled with good take-off and landing times, ensured high demand for PIA on its UK routes before the 2020 pilot licensing scandal led to a flight ban, which British authorities ended last year.

Indeed, demand for direct flights was the only thing driving PIA's profits - the airline is consistently ranked among the worst in the world on every metric and is competing for traffic with some of the best airlines in the world. Airline reviewers regularly pointed out that many top-tier foreign airlines offer a better economy class product than PIA's business class, eventually leading to PIA downgrading business to 'executive economy' instead of upgrading service on those highly lucrative seats. Even a minuscule improvement in quality would bring significant gains in terms of demand.

Before the suspension, UK routes generated about Rs40 billion annually for the airline, and the loss of these operations was a crippling blow to its revenue stream. The resumption of flights will thus play a critical role in determining whether PIA's new owners feel elated or deflated about their Rs650 billion purchase, coming on the back of a rare pre-tax profit in the first half of 2025 - its first in two decades.

As the first flights prepare to touch down at Heathrow's Terminal 4, the whole country will be watching to see if PIA can be restructured and reformed in a manner that - even as a private airline - it can return to its former stature as a world-class airline.