restore suspended routes<\/a> in January of this year.<\/p>\nThe first Boeing 777 flight from Islamabad to Manchester on Saturday marked PIA\u2019s return following months of inspections and reforms that restored Britain\u2019s confidence in Pakistan\u2019s aviation system.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe flight to Manchester is a remarkable beginning, but we are firmly determined to start flights to London and Birmingham next,\u201d Pakistan Defense Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif told a ceremony held at Islamabad International Airport.<\/p>\n
Asif said in a televised address that the flights were essential for the more than 1.4 million Pakistanis in Britain and Europe, and noted that the remittances they send were the backbone of Pakistan\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n
\u201cProviding them with direct flights is both a moral and national duty,” he said. \u201cThese services will save them time, offer reasonable fares, and provide direct air links to their homeland.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pakistan\u2019s High Commissioner to the UK, Mohammad Faisal, hailed the relaunch as a major step forward for economic and cultural ties between the two nations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis milestone will bring major economic benefits; generating substantial revenue, boosting trade and tourism, and expanding the movement of people and goods,\u201d he said at a recent event in London.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ISLAMABAD — State-run Pakistan International Airlines resumed flights to the United Kingdom on Saturday for the first time…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":526850,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[170847,7306,3907,748,51,393,4179,4884,1144,24489,712,16,15,1764,263],"class_list":{"0":"post-526849","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"category-united-kingdom","9":"tag-170847","10":"tag-aerospace-and-defense-industry","11":"tag-article","12":"tag-britain","13":"tag-business","14":"tag-england","15":"tag-general-news","16":"tag-great-britain","17":"tag-northern-ireland","18":"tag-plane-crashes","19":"tag-scotland","20":"tag-uk","21":"tag-united-kingdom","22":"tag-wales","23":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115434510390727467","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=526849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526849\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/526850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=526849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=526849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=526849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}