RAWALPINDI: Virgin Atlantic operated its final flight from Islamabad International Airport on Sunday after announcing earlier in the year that it will suspend operations between London Heathrow, Lahore and Islamabad.

A spokesman for the Civil Aviation Authority said in a press release that a Virgin Atlantic flight took off from Islamabad to London’s Heathrow Airport at 8am on Sunday.

Virgin Atlantic commenced its operations at Islamabad airport in December 2020 with seven weekly flights. The airline initially operated four flights to Manchester and three to Heathrow Airport.

Later the airline reduced its operations to only three weekly flights to Heathrow Airport, the spokesman said.

Meanwhile, Virgin Atlantic provided the best air travel services to customers between Islamabad and London.

On the occasion, COO/Airport Manager Syed Aftab Gilani thanked the Virgin Atlantic team for providing world-class air travel services.

He said he hoped that Virgin Atlantic Airlines would return to Pakistan in future.

On the other hand, 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 United Kingdom, and Islamabad and Lahore in Pakistan. During that time, we have also provided important cargo capacity, as well as delivering vital medical supplies,” the spokesperson said.

“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,” he added.

Published in Dawn, July 10th, 2023