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.