European Union ban on PIA flights comes into effect tonight

The suspension of PIA flights by the European Union Air Safety Agency will take effect from tonight.

According to the PIA spokesperson, the European Union Air Safety Agency has suspended the PIA's license for flights to European countries for six months, which will take effect from 12:00 AM tonight.

The spokesman informed that from tonight, all PIA flights to Europe will be canceled, so passengers who have bookings can forward their bookings or get a refund.

The spokesman said that the ban was made after it was learned that pilots were operating flights on fake licenses. The EU has requested a list of pilots from the government of Pakistan.

The national airline spokesman added that they were in touch with EU Air Safety Agency and were taking steps to address the concerns, adding that the suspension was expected to end soon due to government and administrative measures.

Earlier, the European Union's Air Safety Agency announced the suspension of PIA's air operations permits for European countries for six months from July 1, after which PIA temporarily canceled all flights to Europe.

However, owing to the efforts of the government of Pakistan, the European Union has given permission to Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) to operate till July 3. The permission was given to bring back the Pakistanis stranded abroad.