LAHORE: The Pakistan International Airlines operated Boeing-777 (over 300-seater) on ‘one time’ special Lahore-Beijing route to fetch Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and his team.

The national flag-carrier flies AirBus-310 (over 200-seater) on the Lahore-Beijing-Tokyo route twice a week. On this route the PIA has not operated Boeing-777 in the recent past because of the passenger traffic load.

Shahbaz had gone to Beijing along with President Mamnoon Husain on the president’s plane on Feb 19. As Mr Sharif had to return to Lahore after a three-day stay on Feb 21, he preferred to return by a scheduled flight of the national flag carrier.

“On the direction of those at the helm, the PIA management chose a better aircraft (Boeing-777) from its fleet replacing the A-310 and flew it only up to Beijing (instead of going the whole route up to Tokyo),”a source in the airline told Dawn.

The Boeings are mostly being flown to and from Europe, the United States and the Gulf due to high passenger load on these routes.

The PML-N government had said that the chief minister and the members of his entourage had paid the expenses of the visit from their own pockets. But the expenses incurred because of the swipe of the aircraft have gone unnoticed amid the routine calls of austerity by the highest functionaries of the government.

PIA spokesperson Mashhood Tajwar said: “There was nothing unusual in operating Boeing-777 on the Lahore-Beijing route. The A-310 aircraft was grounded for technical reasons and the PIA had to replace it with a spare Boeing.”

Replying to a question about cutting the flight route to Beijing, he said: “There were a few bookings for Tokyo and the PIA adjusted them in subsequent flights.”

He added the PIA considered all its passengers as VIP.

Chief minister’s press secretary Shoaib Bin Aziz was not available for comment while Punjab Information Secretary Momin Ali Agha said he would respond if he was sent a text message. He, however, did not answer a query sent on his mobile phone.