London, April 22:

Britons flying to and from Pakistan have been hit severely by a European Union (EU) ban on most Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) aircraft.

PIA has been tight-lipped about the impact of the EU ban. But bookings on PIA have plummeted about 50 per cent since EU refused landing rights to its Boeing 747s and Airbus A310s because of safety concerns back in January, it is reliably learnt.

At first passengers were forced to pay hiked rates in February and March in a bid to get a seat on PIA, which flies directly to Pakistan from Birmingham, Glasgow, Heathrow, Manchester and Stansted.

The scramble was due to the airline having just seven Boeing 777s flying from Britain to Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi now from a total fleet of 33 planes before the EU ban.

Mehboob Ahmed, CEO of Mehboob Travels, Walthamstow, which has been catering to PIA passengers since 1975, told the Eastern Eye newspaper, “There has been a real crisis for over a year now.”