From blacklist to boarding: Why UK banned Pakistani flights in 2020 and why it’s allowing them again now

File photo of a Taliban fighter standing guard as a Pakistan International Airlines plane, the first commercial international flight to land since the Taliban retook power last month, takes off with passengers onboard at the airport in Kabul on September 13, 2021. (Image used for representation purpose)

More than five years after grounding Pakistani carriers over serious safety concerns, Britain has lifted its ban on airlines from the country, a move confirmed on Wednesday by the UK embassy in Islamabad. But the decision follows years of international scrutiny and a string of aviation embarrassments for Pakistan.

The ban was first imposed in June 2020 following the deadly crash of a Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) jet in Karachi, which killed nearly 100 people. The aircraft plummeted into a residential area shortly before landing - a tragedy attributed to gross human error by both the pilots and air traffic control.

In the aftermath of the crash, Pakistan’s entire aviation sector came under global fire after the country’s aviation minister admitted in parliament that about one-third of Pakistani pilots held “fake or dubious” licenses. The shocking revelation prompted aviation watchdogs across the world to act. European and British authorities swiftly barred Pakistan’s flag carrier, and later other airlines, from their airspace, citing safety risks.

The UK Air Safety Committee, part of the country’s independent aviation safety framework, maintained the ban for years as Pakistan struggled to restore credibility. But on Wednesday, the British High Commission in Islamabad said the UK had finally decided to lift the ban, claiming that Pakistan had made sufficient progress in aviation safety standards.

“Based on this independent and technically-driven process, it has decided to remove Pakistan and its air carriers from the (UK Air Safety) List,” the embassy said in a statement, as reported by AFP.

The British decision comes months after European regulators also ended a four-year suspension on PIA, allowing the airline to resume flights to the continent in January. PIA now plans to restart services to the UK “in the shortest possible time,” with the first route connecting Islamabad to Manchester.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif welcomed the development, calling it “an important milestone for the country”.

“The lifting of the ban on Pakistani flights by the UK is a source of relief for Pakistanis residing in Britain,” Sharif said in a statement, according to AFP.

But for many in Pakistan, the return to UK skies is more about damage control than progress.

PIA has long been described as a bloated and mismanaged entity, plagued by mounting debt, unpaid bills, operational inefficiencies, and a persistently poor safety record. The 2020 crash merely laid bare years of institutional neglect. While Islamabad has repeatedly pledged to reform the airline, including attempts to privatise it, no real turnaround has taken place.

Aviation Minister Khawaja Asif, speaking at a press conference in Islamabad, admitted the grounding of flights had “caused losses”, but insisted that global trust was returning.

“Confidence is being restored in Pakistani airlines once again,” he said.

Still, Pakistan faces an uphill battle. A 2024 bid to privatise PIA failed after a prospective buyer reportedly offered far below the government's asking price. The state-run airline, which employs 7,000 people, has been teetering on the edge of bankruptcy - a far cry from its heyday in the 1960s to 1990s when it was considered a regional leader.