PIA to wet-lease two Boeing 777s and go daily to London from 27 October

Pakistan International Airlines' board has approved leasing five Boeing aircraft to carry its European and United Kingdom schedule, and set seven weekly flights to London from 27 October.

Two of the five are Boeing 777s taken on a wet lease from Norse Atlantic for six months. A wet lease means the aircraft arrives with the lessor's crew, maintenance and insurance, so PIA is buying flying hours rather than an aeroplane. The remaining three come on dry lease, where PIA supplies its own crew and takes on the maintenance. The board, meeting at the airline's Islamabad head office, also told management to speed up spare parts procurement.

Why lease rather than buy

PIA does not have the widebody capacity to run a daily London rotation alongside the rest of its long-haul map. A widebody order takes years from signature to delivery and needs financing the airline cannot raise on its own balance sheet. A six-month wet lease puts metal on the route this winter and can be walked away from if the traffic is not there.

The cost is that wet-leased flying is expensive per seat, because the lessor prices in its own crew and risk. It is a capacity decision for one season, not a fleet plan.

What it means if you fly the route

Going from the current frequency to daily is the practical change for the diaspora market. Seven a week means a departure every day rather than a fixed pattern, which matters most around the end of December and in the Eid peaks, when Manchester, Birmingham and London bookings from Lahore and Islamabad are the hardest to find at a sane fare.

More frequency does not automatically mean cheaper tickets. Fares on the UK routes are set against Gulf carriers connecting through Dubai, Doha and Abu Dhabi, and those carriers have far more daily capacity into Pakistan. Watch the fare rather than the timetable.

If you are budgeting a UK trip, the number that moves your total is the exchange rate as much as the fare: the pound is at Rs 369.84, down from Rs 371.01. The dated run is on our pound rate page, and the currency converter will price a fare in rupees.

The wider picture

The airline's return to European and UK flying has been the central plank of its commercial recovery, and the leased widebodies are the airline buying itself time to make that flying pay before any fleet renewal. The board did not put a figure on the leases.

For travellers, one caution applies to every schedule announcement: a frequency approved by a board still needs slots, crew and regulatory sign-off on both ends. Book on the airline's own site or a licensed agent, and do not pay for a ticket on a date the schedule does not yet show.