PIA to add four aircraft, first to fly from November 1

Pakistan International Airlines will add four aircraft to its fleet, the first of them entering service on November 1, Parliamentary Secretary for Defence Osama Sarwar told the National Assembly on Friday.

Sarwar was replying to a Calling Attention Notice on the exclusion of Karachi from the operational routes of the recently leased PIA Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner on flights between Pakistan and the United Kingdom. According to the Associated Press of Pakistan, he told the House that PIA had been privatised and was now operating under an arrangement that the agency's published account did not describe in full.

ProPakistani reported that Sarwar also set out a timetable for the four aircraft. The first becomes operational on November 1 and the second is due to be received on November 15, with its route to be finalised after it arrives. Two further aircraft will join the fleet in January 2027 and begin operations from Karachi.

The parliamentary secretary said the additions would allow the airline to operate on additional routes. Neither report named the aircraft types, the terms on which they are being acquired, or the routes they will serve beyond the Karachi-based deployment planned for early 2027.

The two accounts agree on the number of aircraft and on who announced them. Only ProPakistani's report carried the delivery dates and the plan to base the later two aircraft in Karachi; APP's dispatch was published with only the opening of Sarwar's reply.

The announcement comes as PIA works to restore its international network, including services to the United Kingdom. The recently leased Dreamliner has been at the centre of parliamentary attention over route allocation, with the calling attention notice asking why Karachi was left off the aircraft's Pakistan-UK schedule.

The National Assembly session was held on Friday. Details of the proceedings on the calling attention notice beyond Sarwar's reply were not carried in the reports available.