Pakistan international Airlines (PIA) being the flag carrier of Pakistan is the only airline which flies directly from UK to Pakistan and Pakistan to UK. The journey time of 8 hours with out any transit fatigue makes it highly sought after especially with women, children and elderly citizens. People buy PIA cheap tickets only because they don’t have to worry about transit if they are travelling with family or family is travelling alone. PIA operates 5 flights from Heathrow each week, two for Karachi, two for Lahore and one for Islamabad. It also fly direct to Pakistan from Manchester and Glasgow Airports in the UK.

PIA is riddled with it’s own lack of aircraft, London is it’s most profitable route and it operates couple of dedicated Boeing 777 on this route. However, lack of aircraft is putting load on current fleet which results in aircraft regularly going out of service. At the moment 8-10 PIA aircraft are under maintenance which means PIA is left with 32-34 aircraft out of total 42. PIA is flying to 67 destinations each week while it has almost 200 routes many of which are leased to other airlines as PIA hopes to get them back when it’s aircraft fleet is fully operational.

PIA is now acquiring 4 Boeing 737-400/800 series and 2 Boeing 777 long range aircraft on dry lease to cope with demand and to reduce load on current fleet. Pakistan International Airlines is already operating 8 of it’s own Boeing 777 aircraft on the routes to Europe and North America. PIA also has 8 Boeing 747 aircraft, 4 of which are not operational at the moment. Due to non-availability of aircraft PIA daily cancel many of it’s flights especially on it’s local and middle east routes, that is basically because of non-availability of single body medium range aircraft. With the injection of Boeing 737 series aircraft it is widely understood that PIA will be able to cope with demand on currently troubled routes.

Cheap flights to Pakistan on PIA

Also, if you are just buying a ticket from PIA at this moment before UK school summer holidays, the one way maybe cheap but right now it’s school holidays in Pakistan so PIA aircraft are flying full on their way back. However, if you are flying before 15th July and coming back after 6 weeks when UK and Pakistan summer school holidays are over, you may find a bargain on cheapest rates possible. This time Eid-ul-fitr is also coming during school holidays so you should book early if you plan to spend your Eid holidays with your family back in Pakistan.

Today we will be giving tips about how to get cheapest flights to Lahore from UK. Lahore is the 2nd largest city of Pakistan with a growing population of 80 million people. The city is the largest in Punjabi province and is the location of provisional headquarters. There are many migrant families living in United Kingdom which are originally from Lahore or Punjab in general, especially this airports serves jointly with Islamabad Airport for large migrant community who are from Mirpur in Azad Kashmir. The Lahore International Airport also serves as regional hub for PIA to operate flights to other local airports along the depth and breadth of Punjab and Pakistan. PIA operates daily flights from Lahore International Airport to Multan Airport, Islamabad Airport, Karachi Airport, Quetta Airport and alternatively for Bahawalpur, Faisalabad and Dera Ghazi Khan Airports. Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) operates daily direct flights for Allama Iqbal International Airport Lahore. Other than PIA following airlines fly to Lahore:

Airlines for Flights to Lahore

• Emirates (3 weekly flights to Lahore Sunday/Monday/Thursday)
• Gulf Air (3 weekly flights to Lahore Monday/Wednesday/Friday)
• Etihad Airways (daily flights)
• Qatar Airways (4 weekly flights to Lahore Monday/Wednesday/Thursday/Friday)

All of these airlines have direct daily flights from UK to their regional hubs in Dubai, Bahrain, Abu Dhabi and Doha from London Heathrow, Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham and Glasgow airports.

You can get cheap flights to Lahore by calling us on our reservations hotline. Normally, you would like to avoid festive and summer holiday seasons to fly cheap else get your ticket bright and early, normally 2 months in advance to avoid paying high ticket prices.

Transfers from Lahore Airport

There are few ways of getting from Lahore airport after your flight to the city, they are:

- Hire a cab: There are many companies at Allama Iqbal International Airport Lahore which are offering cab services. It is relatively cheaper and safer if you get a cab from the kiosks  inside the terminal building rather than yellow cabs or private taxis standing outside in the parking. Radio cabs has fixed prices, they know who the drivers are and have good cars to get you around. One such company is Metro Radio Cab (Phone: (+92-42) 111-222-787). You can call these radio cab companies for a transfer back to airport from city on your return. The cab fare is no more than £5-£6 to go anywhere in the city.

- Bus: There is a bus which leaves the terminal building every 15 minutes for the city. It’s not very nice but still serves the purpose, however, kindly note it will take much more time than taxi because it’s effectively public transport.

Safety Tips at Lahore Airport

Be aware of some random guys approaching you when you get out of arrivals hall at Lahore International Airport. They will start pushing your trolley with you and either they will steal something from your luggage while helping you get your luggage in your car/tax/van or they will demand foreign currency at the end. Do not pay them anything or let them get near to your luggage trolley. Also, remain aware of pickpocketing and do not carry expensive mobile phones with you at all times in city or at the airport.

Again, if you want cheap flight tickets to Lahore or to all international airports in Pakistan, we are just a call away to book your flight.

First things first, in these tough times every one wants everything as cheap as possible. However, when it comes to airlines and airfares, it turns out to be a bit different to find a bargain.

Here are a few tips which may help you to find those cheap deals and offers you are after:

Book well in advance

• Airlines are different. They are not exactly like average retail stores which turns into offers in the seasons when there are less sales like February, March or when there is a shopping season like Christmas. Each airline has some classes (like they are not real classes of seats, they are just fare classes) which are cheaper, they go on sale first and when they are sold out, hence comes the expensive ones and this order of fare sales remain in function all year long, so get your ticket in advance, well advance.
• Airlines are not different. Yes, they are different in terms of fare sales but in terms of promotions they do run promotions on airfares when there is a low season, again, like in months of September, October and they do increase their fares when there is a season when people travel the most. For example, Christmas and annual summer school holidays. So, tip number two is again get your ticket well in advance specially for those seasons if you are planning to get away when kids are off school.
• Plan well ahead of Eid seasons for Pakistan as well, like if you are planning to go home for Eid-ul-fitr, you may want to reserve your ticket before 1st of Ramadaan or at least in first 10 days of Ramadaan. Same for Eid-ul-Adha as well, book your cheap flight well in advance.

Ask a travel agent

• Yes, you heard right, you may want to open up each website of every airline and search for yourself but first travel agents keep taps on all the airlines and their promotions for you, there are multiple airlines flying to Pakistan from UK, i.e. Emirates, Etihad Airways, Qatar Airways, Gulf Air, Oman Air , Kuwait Airways, Airblue and of course Pakistan International Airlines (PIA). A travel agent has the system which connects to all of them and they readily knows about all the promotions and stuff.
• Airlines leave margins to the travel agencies to sell their tickets. Many agents pass these margins to end passenger hence, you may get a cheaper flight offer then you will get from the airline direct.
• You can always get offers from our website which has a Cheapest Flights to Pakistan section letting you know what cheapest fares they offered in last 7 days, that may let you know about trend in fares, obviously if they never got it cheap in those days, no one else would, so better hurry get your ticket!

Which airports?

Flights for Pakistan goes from all major airports of United Kingdom to Pakistan. Major airports which are also close to Pakistani community areas are: London Heathrow, Gatwick (London), Leads, Manchester, Birmingham and Glasgow. Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) serves from only London Heathrow, Manchester and Glasgow, rest of the airports are served by other airlines.

In Pakistan, all international airports are covered, i.e. Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi and Peshawar and from those international airports you can get connecting flights for other regional airports, such as Bahawalpur, Multan, Sialkot, Hyderabad, Sukkur etc.