Virgin pulls out of Pakistan

Virgin Atlantic have announced the suspension of services between London Heathrow and Lahore and Islamabad.

A Virgin Atlantic spokesperson said:

As we continue to ramp up our flying programme in 2023, we’ve taken the opportunity to review our entire network and decided to make a few changes.

Following this review, it is with regret that we’ve taken the difficult decision to suspend our services between London Heathrow and Pakistan. Since commencing operations in December 2020, we have been proud to offer choice for customers travelling between London and Manchester in the UK, and Islamabad and Lahore in Pakistan. During that time, we have also provided important cargo capacity, as well as delivering vital medical supplies.

This is not a decision we have taken lightly, and we’d like to apologise for any inconvenience caused.  We would like to wholeheartedly thank everyone in Pakistan; our customers, teams, partners and the authorities for their support over the past two years.

Virgin Atlantic will continue to operate services between London and Lahore until 1 May and between London and Islamabad until 9 July.

Following the announcement, Paul Baker, Sales Director of Global Travel Management said,

It’s always sad to see a great airline dropping routes. Virgin Atlantic has served Pakistan well for a number of years. But the airline can continue to provide brilliant service to customers on other, growing routes.

For UK-based business travellers, there will continue to be a wide range of airlines serving UK-Pakistan routes, including British Airways, Qatar Airways, Emirates and Turkish Airlines. As always, we welcome inquiries from customers looking to travel to Pakistan from London and can advise on the best, most suitable and efficient routes.