Emirates to ramp up flight operations to Pakistan

KARACHI: Emirates will increase weekly flights to Pakistan to 60 from next week, the airline said on Monday, gradually ramping up flight frequency to pre-corona level.

Emirates, the UAE-based world’s biggest international carrier, will now offer 53 weekly flights to Pakistan, which will increase to 60 weekly flights starting 16 August, the airline said in a statement. All flights will be operated with the Emirates Boeing 777-300ER and can be booked on emirates.com or via travel agents.

The airline will operate 21 weekly flights to Karachi and that would be increased to 28 starting 16 August; 10 weekly flights to Islamabad; 7 to Sialkot; 10 to Lahore; and 5 weekly flights to Peshawar, offering customers enhanced connectivity to over 70 destinations within its current network, via Dubai. “The airline is set to ramp up its flight frequency to/from Karachi, Islamabad, Lahore, and Sialkot and resume passenger services to Peshawar,” said Emirates. Emirates resumed scheduled passenger flights from Pakistan to Dubai from earlier June after more than two-month of suspension in operation amid the pandemic.

The airline said travel restrictions remain in place, and travellers will only be accepted on the flights if they comply with the eligibility and entry criteria requirements.

“Customers can stop over or travel to Dubai as the city has re-opened for international business and leisure visitors,” it said. “COVID-19 PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests are mandatory for all inbound and transit passengers arriving to Dubai (and the UAE), including UAE citizens, residents and tourists, irrespective of the country they are coming from.” The carrier temporarily suspended all flights in compliance with the order from the Civil Aviation Authority of Pakistan from late March after the coronavirus-induced lockdown. Since the outbreak of COVID-19 and grounding of operations, Emirates previously operated only special flights to Pakistan to repatriate stranded people from the UAE. Gulf Air has already resumed operations from Pakistan.