New routes: PIA to start flights to Najaf, Mashhad

Special assistant says PIA needs 45 aircraft and efforts are made to induct at least 20 aircraft.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) will start flights to Najaf and Mashhad from next month, Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Aviation, Shujaat Azeem said on Tuesday. Addressing senior airline officials and representatives of all PIA Union and Associations, he said that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif wants an early revival of PIA for which all out efforts should be carried out on urgent basis. Azeem said that PIA needs at least 45 aircraft and efforts are being made to get and induct at least 20 aircraft with long, medium and short range.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 5^th, 2014.