Pakistan's national carrier has reduced the number of flights to and from India by over 60 per cent due to low passenger traffic and shortage of aircraft.
"We have cut down our operations temporarily to and from India by 66 per cent, primarily because of shortage of aircraft and reduction in passengers," Pakistan International Airlines spokesman Mashhood Tajwar said today.
PIA will now operate only four flights a week to India as against 12 earlier.
"Karachi to Delhi, Delhi to Karachi (four flights), Karachi to Mumbai, Mumbai to Karachi (two flights) and Lahore to Delhi and Delhi to Lahore (two flights) will no longer operate," he said.
"PIA will now operate only two flights from Lahore to Delhi and Delhi to Lahore and Karachi to Mumbai and Mumbai to Karachi."
PIA is the only airline operating direct flights between the Pakistani and Indian capitals. Air India suspended its services from Pakistan several years ago due to lack of passengers.
Tajwar said the decision was linked to PIA replacing its Boeing 737s with Airbus 310s which have double the seating capacity.
Boeing 737 aircraft have a capacity of 118 while Airbus A310 can carry 227 passengers.
"Basically we have reduced the frequency of flights," he clarified.
Tajwar further said PIA was facing a shortage of aircraft and with the start of Hajj operations, it cannot afford to fly its planes on routes where traffic volume is low.
"We have also suspended our operations to Frankfurt and Amsterdam because of this reason," he said.
The process for acquiring some 10 narrow-body aircraft - having a capacity of 140 to 200 passengers - has been initiated and by the end of the year the new aircraft would be inducted into the PIA fleet.
The addition of new aircraft will help the PIA resume its normal operations, he said.
Official sources told PTI that though the air traffic volume between India and Pakistan has never been ideal, the previous Pakistan People's Party-led government had never reduced flights to India.
They said it is surprising that the current PML-N government, considered to have a "soft corner" for India, has drastically reduced the flight operations.
