ISLAMABAD: The United Kingdom has removed Pakistan from its Air Safety List, the British High Commission announced on Wednesday, paving the way for Pakistani airlines to apply for permits to operate flights to the UK.

Pakistani airlines were barred from flying to the European Union and the United Kingdom following the crash of a Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) Airbus A320 in a residential area of Karachi that killed nearly 100 people in May 2020. The crash was attributed to human error by both the pilots and air traffic controllers and was followed by claims that a significant number of Pakistani pilots held dubious or fake licenses.

PIA resumed operations to Europe earlier this year after a four-and-a-half-year ban was lifted by EU regulators. The airline relaunched flights from Islamabad to Paris on January 10 and introduced direct flights from Lahore to Paris in June.

“I’m grateful to aviation experts in the UK and Pakistan for their collaborative work to drive improvements to meet international safety standards,” British High Commissioner Jane Marriott said in the statement. “While it will take time for flights to resume, once the logistics are in place, I look forward to using a Pakistani carrier when visiting family and friends.”

The High Commission said the decision to remove Pakistan and its carriers from the UK Air Safety List followed years of engagement between the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority and UK regulators.

The UK’s Air Safety Committee, which oversees the safety list through an independent technical process, determined that Pakistan had made the necessary improvements, continued the statement.

‘IMPORTANT MILESTONE’

Reacting to the development, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif called it an “important milestone” for the country, adding it would enhance Pakistan’s reputation at the international level and further strengthen bilateral cooperation with the UK.

He vowed to bring Pakistani airlines into competition with global carriers.

A PIA statement also announced the national airline was finalizing preparations to resume flights to the UK “as quickly as possible” and was in the process of filing a flight schedule. It informed it was planning to launch three weekly flights after getting approval from the UK authorities.

Addressing a news conference in Islamabad, Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Asif maintained the next step was the privatization of PIA, adding the resumption of flights to Britain would add value to the airline’s proceeds.

“We will now get a better price for it because we are restoring all of PIA’s international routes before privatizing it, which is maximizing its value,” he said.

“We are also making efforts to resume the New York flight,” he continued, adding there was no ban on the flight but it had to be discontinued due to the unavailability of planes.

With over 1.6 million people of Pakistani heritage living in the UK and thousands of British nationals residing in Pakistan, the UK decision to allow flights from Pakistan is expected to ease travel and boost trade between the two countries.

The UK is Pakistan’s third-largest trading partner, with a bilateral relationship valued at £4.7 billion.