PIA - Pakistan International Airlines (PK, Islamabad International) hopes to start direct flights to Australia in late March. If launched they will be carrier's first services to Oceania.

Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) has confirmed to ch-aviation that it received an application from PIA for a foreign air transport air operators certificate (FATAOC) on February 21, 2022, for scheduled services between Pakistan and Australia. "The application and subsequent safety assessment will be managed through the normal process applied to Foreign AOC holders seeking to conduct commercial air transport into/out of Australian territory," a CASA spokesman said.

According to ARY TV News, PIA spokesman Abdullah Hafeez said the airline has approached the CASA for permission to operate twice-weekly flights to Sydney Kingsford Smith from Karachi International and Lahore International in the last week of March or early April 2022, using B777s. Flights from Islamabad could be added later.

PIA is currently codesharing with Etihad Airways (EY, Abu Dhabi International) on its flights to Australia. As things stand, there are no direct flights between Pakistan and Australia, meaning it takes up to 35 hours with stopovers in third countries to get from one to the other.

PIA's international network currently spans the Middle East, China, Malaysia, the CIS, Europe, Canada, with military charters to Central Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

PIA's international air safety reputation was ruined over a 2020 scandal involving fake pilot licenses. The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) recently lifted its Significant Safety Concern (SSC) warning against Pakistan's personnel licensing following an on-site audit between November 29 and December 10, 2021, conducted under its Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme (USOAP). However, even though Pakistan is no longer on the European Union Air Safety List (ASL), the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has – for now - refused to set aside a ban on flights from Pakistan.

Formal consultations are continuing between the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (PCAA), the European Commissions, and EASA under the remit of EU Air Safety List (ASL) regulations to address the overall oversight capacity of PCAA.