RAWALPINDI: British airline Virgin Atlantic will commence its flight operation for the country from Dec 13 as the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (PCAA) has approved its flight operation to and from Pakistan.

The PCAA granted approval to Virgin Atlantic to start its flight operation in response to its request made on Dec 2. Virgin Atlantic is scheduled to start its flight operations for Islamabad and Lahore. The airliner will use Airbus A-332 aircraft to continue a weekly eight-flight operation to the two cities.

According to the schedule approved by the PCAA, the first passenger flight VS365 will take off from London on Dec 13 and land at Lahore’s Allama Iqbal International Airport on Dec 14 in the morning.

The airline will operate four weekly flights between London and Lahore and three flights between Lon­don and Islamabad. Before starting its flight operation to Pakistan, Virgin Atlantic will operate a cargo flight VS364 from England to Pakistan on Dec 7.

The airline had reportedly sought permission to operate flights from Manchester and London.

The airline had earlier announced three routes to Pakistan from the UK — London-Lahore, London-Islamabad and Manchester-Islamabad. The federal cabinet had given approval to the airline to operate direct flights between Pakistan and London.

Published in Dawn, December 6th, 2020