KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) - Pakistan's national airline announced Tuesday that it had slashed its flights to Europe by nearly 50 percent after the European Union barred most of its planes due to safety concerns.
The EU's executive commission said Monday it would allow Pakistan International Airlines to use only its seven Boeing 777 planes on services to EU airports due to worries about the age and maintenance of its other long-haul aircraft.
PIA said the airline had cut the number of weekly flights to Europe and the United States from 42 to 24, effective immediately, as a result of the ban.
Services to Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Milan and Chicago have been stopped altogether. Flights to destinations including Manchester, New York, Istanbul and Paris will continue, but with reduced frequency.
PIA chairman Tariq Kirmani criticized the EU decision as "unjust and discriminatory," insisting that the airline's entire fleet was safe.
"PIA's planes are safe and airworthy," he told reporters at PIA's headquarters in the southern city of Karachi. He said PIA had a better safety record than some other airlines still allowed to fly in Europe. He didn't name those rivals.
However, he said PIA would upgrade its fleet to address the EU's concerns and that it had already contacted Turkey's national airline about leasing two extra planes to serve the affected European routes. It hopes to restore some of the cut flights by March 15.
PIA had been using aging Boeing 747, Airbus 310 and other aircraft on the lucrative European routes. The B-747s and A-310s and other smaller aircraft account for the bulk of the airline's inventory of over 40 long-range and regional aircraft.
PIA was considered one of the best airlines in the developing world in the 1960s and 1970s. Critics blame the slide in quality and maintenance standards on government interference in the airline's operations.
