Virgin Atlantic has announced today that it will be suspending services between London and Lahore and Islamabad.
The suspension announcement of services between the United Kingdom and Pakistan comes to front as the British carrier decided to make a few changes over ‘low yield operations’.
The airline started operations two years back as it rolled out operations to Islamabad and Lahore from Heathrow during the Covid pandemic when the airlines’ traditional markets in the US and other nations were restricted due to stringent measures.
Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority said in a statement,
"The decision by Virgin Atlantic to stop flights between Pakistan and Britain comes after the airline decided to make changes to their flying program 2023, and suspending flights after July based on commercial reasons."
"No other reasons have been cited by the airline except the commercial viability. We sincerely thank Virgin Atlantic and wish them a very good luck for their present and their future. They will be warmly welcomed whenever they decide to return to Pakistan."
A spokesperson of Virgin Atlantic said it is to be announced with regret that we’ve taken the difficult decision to suspend our services between London Heathrow and Pakistan.
“This is not a decision we have taken lightly, and we’d like to apologise for any inconvenience caused,” Virgin Atlantic said in a statement, and further thanked Pakistani customers, teams, partners and the authorities for their support over the past two years.”
The spokesman maintained that suspending services to South Asian country will ensure its resources are ‘utilised in the most optimal way to achieve operational resilience’.
Virgin Atlantic also announced the final flight dates to Pakistan which are as follows:
With this, the carrier mentioned continuing operations between London and Lahore until May 1 and between London to Islamabad until July 9.
The end of operations from the airline also sounds alarm for travelers , whereas some sources say, the move may also have been spurred by rumours that the EU flight ban of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) will soon be lifted.
The ban on PIA was imposed following the crash of a PIA flight in Karachi in May 2020, after which it was found that 262 PIA pilots were flying under fake qualifications.
