KARACHI: After sacking 63 employees in the continued fallout from the fake license scandal, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has now announced restoration of its flight operation to United Kingdom by August 14, 2020 to regain passengers' confidence.

According to PIA, the alternate arrangements have successfully been implemented by PIA to restore its flight operations to UK consequent to recent suspension.

PIA spokesman said that an agreement had been finalized with a Portuguese company to operate PIA flights to its destinations in the UK with modern and amenities laden Airbus A330 aircraft having a capacity of over 300 seats.

He said that PK call sign and slots would be used during this operation and would be a two class operation, Business and Economy with all the modern comforts an airliner could offer including in-flight entertainment service onboard.

He informed that the national flag carrier would commence these flights on the Independence Day of Pakistan, August 14 to celebrate the occasion and mark its resurgence.

The first flight with the call sign PK 9702 will depart from Manchester Ringway Airport on August 14, 2020 carrying 250 passengers for Islamabad while PK9785 will depart from Islamabad to London Heathrow on August 15, 2020.

Social Distancing will be observed on these flights, Booking and ticketing on these flights have already commenced and the first flight has already been filled. Keeping in view the high demand and limited seats available, those passengers who have urgent need to travel should book as early as possible, 45 kilograms of free baggage allowance is permissible with each ticket, said PIA spokesperson. PIA spokesman said that they received many applications from the local community to resume service from Manchester as competitors had doubled fares with PIA retracting from the market and added that after the resumption of PIA service, fares were expected to be normalized again.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020