The British Airways (BA) will resume flights to Pakistan from next year after a 10-year absence that followed a major hotel bombing, becoming the first Western airline to restart flights to the South Asian nation.
BA halted flights following one of the most high-profile attacks in Pakistan’s history, the 2008 Marriott Hotel bombing in Islamabad.
Deputy British High Commissioner to Pakistan Richard Crowder told reporters in Islamabad that BA’s return was in large part due to ‘an improvement in the security environment in this country’.
Pakistan hailed BA’s move, saying it will offer confidence to other foreign investors and make the country less isolated. “Once it gets around the world that British Airways has put its stamp of approval on Pakistan, it will put us one or two notches up as a country to do business with,” said Commerce Minister Abdul Razak Dawood.
BA, which is owned by Spanish-registered IAG, is due to begin the London Heathrow-Islamabad service on June 2, with three weekly flights by the airline’s newest long-haul aircraft, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
At present, only Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flies directly from Pakistan to Britain.
Head of Sales for Asia Pacific and the Middle East for British Airways Robert Williams said the carrier believes the route will be particularly popular with the British Pakistani community who want to visit, or be visited by, their relatives.
“British Airways coming back after a decade shows you where we were and how far we have come,” Special Assistant to Prime Minister Zulfiqar Abbas Bukhari said. “Pakistan is becoming less isolated and more connected to the world, and that’s the Pakistan we want to see,” he added. Pakistan Army spokesperson Major General Asif Ghafoor called the resumption of BA flights “the dividends of decades-long struggle of Pakistani nation and its security forces for the restoration of peace and stability.” “Thanks to British Airways for reviving its flight operations in Pakistan,” he tweeted.
Published in Daily Times, December 19th2018.
