Pakistan International Airlines Drops Domestic Fares

Simple Flying

By Pranjal Pande

Published Aug 22, 2020

PIA Pakistan International Airlines Boeing 777-200 wide body airplane with two GE90 engines and registration AP-BHX landing at London Heathrow International Airport in England, UK. PIA PK is the national flag carrier of Pakistan. The airline connects London to Islamabad, Karachi and Lahore. (Photo by Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Pakistan International Airlines has announced that it will drop fares on key domestic routes starting from today. Flights from Karachi to Islamabad and Lahore will see a drop in price on one-way tickets, with an option to pay slightly more for up to 35 kg of baggage allowance. The news comes as PIA struggles with a lack of international passengers and low demand.

Reduced prices

With demand for flights still low, PIA is hoping a drop in fares can get things moving once again. The airline has done this in the recent past too. It dropped fares in July right before Eid al-Adha to take advantage of the holiday travel.

With the new price drop, a flight between Karachi and Islamabad is set at Rs. 7879 ($47) for the one-way journey. While previous offers were hand-baggage only fares, this time, the fare drops extend to check-in fares too. Passengers may carry up to 35 kg of baggage and pay a total of Rs. 8543 ($51).

Pakistan-US-Repatriation-Flights — PIA is working hard toward rebuilding its reputation, firing hundreds of employees in the last few months. Photo: Faisal Akram via Wikimedia Commons.

Other routes will also see price cuts, including flight between Lahore and Islamabad and Karachi. With the new prices, PIA is hoping that passengers will be willing to get on a flight to visit family and friends and increase passenger capacity.

Tough year for PIA

The push toward domestic flights comes as Pakistan International Airlines is banned from flying to the EU and the US for now. Following a deadly crash on a domestic flight in May, an investigation found that hundreds of PIA pilots were flying with fake licenses and were not qualified to fly.

These findings led to Europe's aviation watchdog, EASA, to ban Pakistan International from its many European destinations. The ban left PIA unable to fly repatriation missions to bring home its citizens and dealt a blow to its finances.

A PIA A320 crashed in a residential area in May, revealing hundreds of pilots with dubious credentials. Photo: Aasif Azaan via Wikimedia Commons

While international flights to popular destinations are mostly out the frame for a while, PIA is likely betting on domestic recovery. While daily COVID-19 cases are down, the country is still seeing over 600 cases a day. A number of passengers flying out of Pakistan have also tested positive, forcing airlines to require tests before flying. New options

With international flights out and domestic recovery still sluggish, PIA has been making plans to continue operations. The airline signed a codeshare agreement with Turkish Airlines, allowing them to connect passengers to Europe with a single stop in Istanbul. We could see services from Pakistan to Turkey increase, and more destinations added if the codeshare does well.

Turkish Airlines recommencing flights from June — The airline is ready for the challenge. Photo: Getty Images

PIA has also partnered with Hi Fly to repatriate its citizens from France and the UK and could do so again if the need arises. For now, PIA is hoping for a robust domestic recovery and fixing its internal license issues so that it can fly internationally once again at the end of the current ban.

What are your thoughts on these price drops? Let us know what you think in the comment section.