British Airways resumes flights to Pakistan after 11 years

British Airways on Monday resumed flight operations to Pakistan, 10 years after halting the service in the wake of a suicide bombing that killed more than 50 people at Islamabad’s Marriott Hotel.

Footage of a Boeing 787 jet with some 240 passengers on board landing at the capital’s new airport was aired by local TV channels.

Several government ministers and the British high commissioner were on hand to welcome the flight.

“I am happy that British Airways has landed in Pakistan after 11 years,’’ Minister for Aviation Ghulam Sarwar Khan said in a video message.

“Today’s Pakistan is more safe, secure and peaceful,’’ Mr Khan said.

The security situation has since improved due to successive military operations against the militants.

“Britain’s flag carrier is back,’’ Thomas Drew, the British High Commissioner in Islamabad, said in a video message shared via Twitter.

“It is of course a tribute to the great improvement to the security situation in Pakistan in recent years,’’ Mr Drew added.

British Airways will be operating three flights a week to Pakistan, said Farah Hussain, a spokesperson for the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).

(dpa/NAN)