ISLAMABAD, Aug 11 (APP): Federal Minister for Defense Chaudhry Ahemd Mukhtar said Monday that direct Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flights between Pakistan and the United States are likely to start next month.
Responding to a question in the Lower House of the Parliament, the federal minister said the two countries had discussed the matter during the recent visit of Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani to the United States.
“The matter was raised before the US government during the visit and the host country had expressed it consent in this regard,” the minister told the House.
PIA had purchased Boeing 777 long- and extended-range aircraft with the aim to start direct flight from Pakistan to the United States.
The minister said the PIA has already started direct flights from Canada, adding that direct flight towards US would shortly be started as the US government has shown its consent in this regard.
The minister said the flight to Euston is underway via Chicago, adding that direct flight to the said destination used to incur huge expenditures.
To another query, Ahmed Mukhtar said the PIA is willing to start working on some new routes as well but it lacks funds to purchase new aircraft.
This is awesome news. I hope this materializes unlike the last few attempts which were crushed amid security fears. This would benefit the US based Pakistanis the most and would take out the hassle of de-boarding halfway through the journey.
Toronto is already served Nonstop 12hrs i believe using the new generation -LR type aircrafts PIA inducted.
We keep hearing such news but nothing happens. Hopefully this time it is different.
My dad just went to Pakistan for Ramadan non-stop via Toronto which he said he so much better and shorter. Beside people hate going to Manchester airport so they can be treated like crap.
Its a good news ( again),, lets see if it materializes. After analyzing the treatment Pakistan's highest level delegation got recently at US soil. This still looks a fantasy.
Anyhow. Emirates, Etihad and Qatar all fly non-stop to their respective countries and then very convenient connections are available to all cities of Pakistan.The tickets are cheaper and Manchester treatment could be avoided as well :)
Emirates is already flying the A380 on the Dubai-New York route, so I guess they will use A380s for the Dubai-LA flight and the Dubai-SF flight as well.
