ISLAMABAD: Pakistan International Airlines and Oriental Sky Aviation Limited on Wednesday signed a landmark cargo charter agreement, paving way for direct and daily dedicated cargo flights between Pakistan and China.
The instrument of agreement was signed between the PIA general manager (charters) and Oriental Sky Aviation MD Rush Wang at the PIA office. PIA CEO Air Marshal Arshad Malik and Chief Commercial Officer Ali Tahir Qasim were also present on the occasion.
As per the agreement, PIA will operate seven weekly flights to Urumqi (China), with four flights a week from Islamabad and three flights from Lahore. It will be a one-of-its-kind operation as PIA has never operated daily cargo flights on this sector.
PIA will be using its Airbus A320s for the said operations.
Upon contact, PIA Spokesperson Abdullah Khan said that during Covid-19, airlines across the globe have seen unprecedented surge in demand for air cargo with many converting their passenger planes to cargo freighters to take advantage of this situation.
“PIA is also aggressively pursuing this path and we are evaluating and looking out for opportunities to operate dedicated cargo flights to a number of sectors, specifically on China and Central Asian routes. PIA is already operating passenger and cargo charters to Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan and Xi’an in China.”
Speaking on the small and modest ceremony, PIA CEO Air Marshal Arshad Malik appreciated his commercial team for taking initiatives to augment the existing revenue sources and thanked the Oriental Sky Aviation MD for his patronage of PIA.
He said that with a daily connection, trade and commerce between the two countries in the post-Covid scenario will be greatly facilitated and will help in normalcy after perhaps the most devastating year for commercial aviation worldwide.
