CASA Confirms PIA Has Not Applied To Fly To Australia

Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) has confirmed reports Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) applied for a local air operator’s certificate to operate passenger flights to Sydney are incorrect.

According to the details, Pakistani media is reporting that the airline has requested the air operator’s certificate from CASA. However, the agency says they’ve received no such application. As per multiple reports out of Pakistan, the application was in, and PIA wanted to start Boeing 777 flights down to Sydney out of both Lahore and Karachi by the end of March / early April – an ambitious timeline for even the most blue-chip airline.

No airline operates regular passenger flights between Pakistan and Australia, even before the travel downturn. Pakistani-born Australians number around 100,000, and to date, travelers moving between the two countries have transited in ports like Singapore, Doha, or Dubai. However, there is a substantial Pakistani diaspora in Australia, and reports cited PIA saying the business case for flights to Australia stacks up.

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But the national flag carrier of Pakistan has form when it comes to one spokesperson saying one thing only for another airline spokesperson to shortly afterward contradict the comment. PIA watchers would have seen that in action following the fall of Kabul and on-again-off-again comments about flights into Afghanistan during that period.

“The Civil Aviation Safety Authority has not received an application from Pakistan International Airlines for permission to commence flights to Australia,” the agency said in response to an inquiry from Simple Flying.

Even if the PIA had applied to fly to Australia, CASA takes aviation safety very seriously, and recent PIA bans in the EU and US wouldn’t have helped the airline’s case.

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Reports in local media quoting a spokesperson of the national flag carrier said PIA planned to operate the flights initially from Lahore and Karachi to the port city of Sydney while flights from the federal capital are also on the cards.

The initiative will cut travel time by around one-third. Abdullah Hafeez told a publication that direct flights would be happening for the first time ever as the airline conducted a feasibility study.

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