Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), which operates a weekly flight between Mumbai and Karachi, will suspend its service from May 11. The national flag carrier of Pakistan operates the flight on every Thursday. “Pakistan International Airlines, in a communication to authorities concerned, has said that its Karachi-Mumbai flight will not be open for sale (bookings) from May 11,” a company associated with the flight operation reportedly told PTI.
However, the PIA communication did not specify the reason for the suspension of its flight service, a company official said.
“Apart from the current situation (prevailing tension between India-Pakistan), the suspension of the service might be due to commercial reasons as well,” the official said. The airline did not operate its service yesterday as well, he said.
However, the Pakistan airline had informed the relevant authorities about the non-operation of service on May 4 in a communication last month, the official said.
Ties between India and Pakistan have worsened over the past few months, especially after the attack on an army camp in Kashmir’s Uri by terrorists from Pakistan, in which 19 soldiers were killed.
PIA often suspends its flight operations, earlier in 2016, PIA decided to suspend all flight operations to Dhaka till March 10 in reaction to the discriminatory treatment of Bangladesh administration. The decision was taken after Bangladeshi intelligence officers raided the office and house of PIA Station Manager Ali Abbas in Dhaka.
(With inputs from PTI)
