On Friday night, a PIA plane made an emergency landing at Bacha Khan International Airport in Peshawar. The flight was on its way to Abu Dhabi from Peshawar when it experienced a technical fault.
According to details, Flight PK-217 had just taken off when it developed a technical fault after being air-borne for few minutes.
The pilot in command informed the control tower of the fault and asked permission to make an emergency landing at the airport, which was granted. The pilot then successfully managed to land the aircraft at the airport.
After landing, passengers were immediately shifted to the airport lounge.
Another PIA flight en route to Dubai had to make an emergency landing in Karachi last year. It was stated that the emergency landing was due to technical failure, however, according to sources, the flight returned to the airport just to take flight attendants on board.
Read more: PIA flight to Lahore makes emergency landing in Russia
These setbacks do not fare well for PIA as just recently the airline resumed its domestic flights which were suspended due to the Covid pandemic.
It was announced last month that PIA would increase the national airline’s flight operations to Gilgit-Baltistan and the surrounding region to enhance business, tourism, and connectivity.
Read more: PIA CEO vows to increase flight operations to GB for increased connectivity
“Currently the PIA has ongoing operations of 2 flights, which would be increased to 3 flights by March 28 to enhance the connectivity between Gilgit-Baltistan,” PIA CEO expressed during a meeting with FPCCI.
The national flag carrier also aimed to increase its international operations in Afghanistan, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan.
A spokesperson revealed that PIA will begin operating two direct flights from Lahore to Baku from March 14 onwards in one week and will begin flight operations from Lahore to Tashkent on March 28. Uzbekistani authorities have also allowed PIA to conduct flight operations to Bukhara and Samarkand.
CEO #PIA meets the Ambassador of Uzbekistan 🇺🇿 in Pakistan H.E Aybak Arif Usmanov & Pakistan Ambassador to Uzbekistan 🇵🇰 H.E Ali Asad Gillani to formally announce PIA's desires to operate on Lahore-Tashkent route from end March 2021. It will be part of PIA's expansion into CAS pic.twitter.com/ssGgsoBvNM
— PIA (@Official_PIA) February 25, 2021
While efforts are being made to revive PIA, in February, a Pakistan International Airline (PIA) plane collided with a baggage tractor before it was about to depart from New Islamabad International Airport to Sharjah. Prior to this, a PIA Airbus-320 at the Karachi International Airport had hit a conveyor belt vehicle, suffering damage to its second engine.
Read more: PIA: Plane hits a baggage tractor at the Islamabad airport this time