Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) will resume flights to Britain next month, ending a five-year suspension as Islamabad prepares to privatise the national carrier under its IMF bailout.
The airline said on Wednesday it had received clearance from Britain to operate passenger and cargo flights. Services will begin from Manchester before being expanded to Birmingham and London.
Britain and the European Union banned PIA in 2020 after Pakistan’s then aviation minister admitted that some pilots held fraudulent licences. The EU lifted its ban last November after Pakistan met new aviation safety standards.
The resumption comes as Islamabad presses ahead with plans to privatise PIA, a requirement of its $7 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout. The carrier last reported a pre-tax profit this month — its first in 20 years.
Five Pakistani business groups have shown interest in acquiring the airline, including Airblue, Lucky Cement, investment firm Arif Habib, and military-linked Fauji Fertilizer. Final bids are expected later in 2025.
Direct flights to Britain are among PIA’s most profitable routes, and the carrier hopes reopening the market will boost its value ahead of privatisation.
Blackouts hit Kyiv and several other Ukrainian regions on Tuesday night due to network overload and lingering damage from earlier Russian strikes, acc...
Britain must urgently prepare for global warming of at least 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by 2050, its climate advisers said on Wedne...
Thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched on Tuesday through the northern Italian city of Udine ahead of Italy’s World Cup qualifier agains...
Torrential rain that lashed Mexico last week killed at least 64 people and 65 more are missing, the government said on Monday, after a tropical depres...
Cameroon opposition candidate Issa Tchiroma declared victory late on Monday in the country's 12 October presidential election, urging President Paul B...
Blackouts hit Kyiv and several other Ukrainian regions on Tuesday night due to network overload and lingering damage from earlier Russian strikes, according to officials.
Thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched on Tuesday through the northern Italian city of Udine ahead of Italy’s World Cup qualifier against Israel, ending their mostly peaceful rally with clashes involving police.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has reached a staff-level agreement with Pakistan that would unlock $1.2 billion in funding once approved by the Fund’s Executive Board.
Google has joined forces with the World Bank Group to develop artificial intelligence-based public digital infrastructure aimed at supporting developing markets.
Video from the USGS (United States Geological Survey) showed on Friday (19 September) the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii erupting and spewing lava.
At least 69 people have died and almost 150 injured following a powerful 6.9-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Cebu City in the central Visayas region of the Philippines, officials said, making it one of the country’s deadliest disasters this year.
Authorities in California have identified the dismembered body discovered in a Tesla registered to singer D4vd as 15-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, who had been missing from Lake Elsinore since April 2024.
A tsunami threat was issued in Chile after a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck the Drake Passage on Friday. The epicenter was located 135 miles south of Puerto Williams on the north coast of Navarino Island.
The war in Ukraine has reached a strategic impasse, and it seems that the conflict will not be solved by military means. This creates a path toward one of two alternatives: either a “frozen” phase that can last indefinitely or a quest for a durable political regulation.
Hamas handed over more bodies of deceased hostages to Israel on Tuesday (14 October), one sign of progress after a number of apparent setbacks in the day since U.S. President Donald Trump touted his plan to end the Gaza war.
The Chairperson-in-Office of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen is continuing a three-nation tour of the South Caucasus, visiting Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia between 13 and 15 October.
The presidential administration in Kyrgyzstan has initiated a public discussion on a draft law proposing amendments to the Constitution that would reintroduce the death penalty.
Elina Valtonen, OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Finland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, welcomed the joint decision by Azerbaijan and Armenia to dissolve the OSCE Minsk Group, voicing optimism that the process would conclude by December 2025.
The United Kingdom has completely lifted its arms embargo on Azerbaijan and Armenia, according to a written statement by Minister for Europe, North America and the Overseas Territories Stephen Doughty, published on the UK Parliament’s website.
You can download the AnewZ application from Play Store and the App Store.
What is your opinion on this topic?
Leave the first comment