British Airways has announced plans to restart flights to Pakistan next year, more than 10 years after it halted services following a major hotel bombing in Islamabad.
The airline stopped flying to the country after the Marriott hotel was bombed in 2008, killing more than 50 people. The security has since improved, with militant attacks sharply down. In Islamabad, a web of road checkpoints dotted across the city for more than a decade has mostly been dismantled.
Pakistani officials welcomed BA’s move, saying it will offer confidence to other foreign investors and make the country less isolated.
“Once it gets around the world that British Airways has put its stamp of approval on Pakistan, it will put us one or two notches up as a country to do business with,” said Commerce Minister Abdul Razak Dawood.
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