Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) resumed direct flights to Europe on Friday months after the EU’s aviation safety agency lifted a four-year ban over safety standards. 

Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif inaugurated the twice-a-week flights to Paris and promised PIA would soon expand to other European countries.

The flight took off from Islamabad at 12:40 PM (0740 GMT) for Paris, becoming the only carrier to offer a direct route to and from the European Union, news agency AFP reported. The flight was fully booked with more than 300 passengers, the airline said.

“This is the first time I am travelling with PIA,” said a passenger Shumaila Rana, a 38-year-old school teacher living in Germany. “I’m nervous and I’m having a lot of anxiety, but I’m hoping it’s gonna be a good flight,” she added.

The curb on PIA was imposed in 2020 after 97 people died when a PIA plane crashed in Karachi in southern Pakistan. Then-Aviation Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan said an investigation into the crash found that nearly a third of Pakistani pilots had cheated on their pilot’s exams, news agency AP reported.

A government probe later concluded that the crash was caused due to the pilot’s error. As a result, both the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EUASA) and the UK suspended PIA’s operations in the region. The ban caused a loss of nearly $150 million a year in revenue for PIA, officials said, as reported by AP.

In November last year, the EUASA announced it had lifted the ban. However, PIA remains suspended from flying in the UK and the United States.

The airline flies to several cities within Pakistan, including the northern regions, as well as to the Gulf and Southeast Asia.

(With inputs from AP and AFP)

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