Second Promise in Four Months: PIA Sets Beijing Return Date

ISLAMABAD: PIA Islamabad-Beijing flights take off again on October 30. That, at least, is the new date. The airline put out a different one in June, which makes this its second public bid in four months to revive a China route that a jet fuel crisis knocked out in April.

Fridays only, for now. One rotation a week. Anyone travelling beyond Beijing can switch to Air China or Shenzhen Airlines, which between them take PIA passengers to more than 25 Chinese cities.

The comeback carries an awkward backstory. On June 5, PIA announced a July 3 restart for the same route and pitched it to students heading into a new academic year. Weeks later, the airline raised the free baggage allowance on Beijing flights. Its October statement makes no mention of the July date.

The fuel shock that grounded Beijing

PIA pulled the plug on April 11, blaming a fourth straight rise in jet fuel prices. Blame Iran. The US-Israeli war there broke out on February 28, and supplies through the Strait of Hormuz stuttered almost at once. Jet fuel cost $85 or $90 a barrel before the war. A few weeks later: $150, and on bad days $200.

Beijing fell as part of a wider retreat. PIA halted Kuala Lumpur from April 14 and suspended Gulf services except to Saudi Arabia and the UAE. It capped UAE flights at 16 a week and scrapped fare discounts for students, journalists, senior citizens and other groups. One internal circular went as far as telling crews to taxi on a single engine.

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Arif Habib chairs the consortium that now owns PIA. He warned that the airline could face closure if fuel costs kept climbing. Fuel prices had risen nearly 150 percent since March, reaching Rs472 per litre.

At the time, a PIA spokesperson promised to restore every suspended route once global prices returned to normal. The airline has not said whether fuel costs have fallen far enough to justify Beijing's return.

A second blackout in six years

Beijing has dropped off PIA's map before. COVID did it first. The last flight left on February 10, 2020, and the route did not come back until October 2022, a gap of more than two and a half years.

Each shutdown cost PIA ground on a corridor that matters to Islamabad well beyond ticket revenue. Ask anyone working on CPEC projects. Engineers, executives and officials shuttle between the two capitals constantly, and Pakistani students at Chinese universities fill a good share of the seats.

Why PIA's Islamabad-Beijing flights reach 25 cities

The Air China and Shenzhen Airlines tie-up turns one weekly flight into something wider. A student bound for a campus outside Beijing, or a trader heading to a southern manufacturing city, can reach the final stop without piecing together separate tickets through Gulf hubs.

The network also widens PIA's own catchment. The airline can now sell seats to travellers whose journeys start or end far from the Chinese capital.

One flight, one test

PIA has announced no plan to add frequencies. Miss the Friday flight and you wait seven days. There is no backup. Seats are on sale now at PIA offices and authorised travel agents, and on the big booking websites. Nobody will know much until the first few Fridays. If the flight fills its seats and stays on the timetable through winter, PIA will have a case for a second weekly service. If it falters, passengers will treat the airline's next China announcement with more caution than they did this one.