Virgin Atlantic Airways has announced that it will resume flight operations to Pakistan later this year, reconnecting the United Kingdom with major Pakistani cities after a hiatus of nearly two years.
According to aviation sources, the British carrier has received clearance from the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to restart services to Karachi, Islamabad, and Lahore beginning in October. The airline will operate flights via Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, restoring links between Pakistan and Virgin Atlantic’s global network.
The move is expected to provide passengers with greater travel convenience and strengthen air connectivity between Pakistan and the UK. Virgin Atlantic had suspended its operations to Pakistan in 2023, citing a global network review as the reason for the withdrawal. At the time, the airline ended its services between London Heathrow and Lahore and Islamabad.
A spokesperson for the airline had said: “As we continue to ramp up our flying programme in 2023, we’ve taken the opportunity to review our entire network and decided to make a few changes.”
Virgin Atlantic, founded in 1984 and headquartered in Crawley, West Sussex, is jointly owned by Virgin Group (51%) and Delta Air Lines (49%). The airline first began operations with its maiden flight from London–Gatwick to Newark on June 22, 1984, and has since expanded into a global carrier.