KARACHI – Pakistan International Airlines has invited the Transport Security Administration (TSA) team of USA to have Islamabad Airport security cleared for direct operations to the US. They will be arriving in Islamabad on July 17 & 18th, 2019.
In the past none of the Pakistani airports were cleared by TSA, which is why PIA had to use mid-point TSA cleared airports Manchester or Barcelona to operate to the US. This drove up operations costs exorbitantly and PIA has to suspend flights to USA in October 2017.
With the New Islamabad International Airport and beefed up security apparatus at Islamabad (shifting resources from other parts of the country), PIA will be working with TSA to get clearance for New Islamabad Airport to start direct operations to the US.
What will this mean for the Pakistani diaspora? A direct flight, only a 16-hour journey, without the hassle of hours and hours of lay overs at airports and hassle for changing terminals!! Currently, passengers have to use other airlines that make a stop at their hubs, resulting in some flights taking more than 24 hours to reach the US!
There is a lot of pressure on PIA from the Pakistani origin citizen, families, especially the elderly to start this direct route and PIA is listening to them. Inside sources in PIA have shared that the PIA management is working closely and actively with the US Embassy in Islamabad and US Consul General of Karachi to coordinate the TSA team’s visit to Pakistan. The US departments have gone out of the way to pay a big role in speedy inspection and restoring direct flights between the two countries. This surely an indication of improving bilateral ties and a key step in confidence-building measures.
It is worth mentioning here that a French Team representing the travel authorities also inspected CAA, ASF and PIA facilities and security procedures at Islamabad. They could not come up with single observation for PIA, proving that it is hundred percent complying with international standards. Similarly, the Department of Transport of UK has cleared Sialkot PIA Operations with a three years license, a show of confidence because normally they have issued only two years clearances before.
PIA had been operating to the US since 1961, the first carrier of the region to connect the USA with Mainland China and the Far East. In fact PIA ordered Boeing 777 LRs (Long Range) aircraft in the late 90s to fly directly on this route, however, with post 9/11 security situation and security infrastructure at Pakistani airports, PIA was not allowed to operate directly resulting in heavy losses to the national airline. With the TSA visit just around the corner, it looks like PIA will be reopening the direct flight to the USA very soon!!
