'Zero Services' by Pakistan Authority, UK’s Virgin Atlantic Suspends Flight Ops in Islamabad, Lahore

In another setback to cash-strapped Pakistan, British airline company Virgin Atlantic has suspended its operation in Islamabad and Lahore due to technical and ground reasons. Sources, however, point that high taxes and zero services by the Pakistan civil aviation may be the cause of suspension.

The Virgin Atlantic operations will suspend operations on May 1 between London and Lahore and between London and Islamabad on July 9, an aviation company said in a statement.

“As we continue to ramp up our flying programme in 2023, we’ve taken the opportunity to review our entire network and decided to make a few changes,” the airline’s spokesperson said in the statement.

According to an aviation source, Virgin Atlantic suspended its operations due to some ground issues with the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).

Virgin Atlantic had asked for high parking and landing fees plus taxes, and unfortunately, the Pakistan CAA failed to provide quality services to the airline and its customers like international standards as per airlines’ rules, the source added.

The Pakistan CAA had taken up some technical issues such as GPS coordinates and other ground issues faced by the airline, but they remained unresolved, which may be the cause of the suspension, according to the source.

While the Pakistani government is planning to outsource operations of three major airports of the country to Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) among other operators, it would improve airport service standards and bring in the much-needed foreign direct investment.

Virgin Atlantic had started flights for Pakistan on December 13, 2020 after approval by the CAA. At that time, it operated three routes from Pakistan to the UK: two from Islamabad to London and Manchester and one from Lahore to London.

The airline, however, announced last September that it would not operate flights between Manchester and Islamabad during the winter and called it a “business decision”, according to Pakistan daily Dawn.

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