Virgin Atlantic conducted its last flight from Islamabad International Airport to London’s Heathrow Airport this past Sunday, marking an end to its operations between London Heathrow, Lahore, and Islamabad, which was announced earlier this year. The company started operating at Islamabad Airport in December 2020 with a weekly schedule of seven flights – four to Manchester and three to Heathrow. Later, the frequency was reduced to three weekly flights, exclusively to Heathrow Airport, as revealed by the Civil Aviation Authority’s spokesperson.
Virgin Atlantic has been known for its excellent air travel services between Islamabad and London. Acknowledging this, Syed Aftab Gilani, the COO/Airport Manager, expressed his gratitude to the Virgin Atlantic team for their exceptional services and conveyed his hopes of the airline returning to Pakistan.
However, a Virgin Atlantic representative stated: “In the process of expanding our 2023 flying programme, we’ve had to reassess our entire network and, unfortunately, make a few modifications. Consequently, we’ve discontinued our services between London Heathrow and Pakistan. Since we started operations in December 2020, we’ve been honoured to provide choices for customers travelling between London and Manchester in the UK and Islamabad and Lahore in Pakistan. This period also allowed us to offer vital cargo capacity and deliver crucial medical supplies.”
The spokesperson continued: “We didn’t take this decision lightly, and we apologize for any disruption it may cause. We sincerely thank everyone in Pakistan, including our customers, teams, partners, and the authorities, for their unwavering support over the past two years.”
