British Airways to launch flights to Lahore, increases Islamabad frequencies

Last month, Virgin Atlantic announced a new route to Lahore in Pakistan. This was to be the first Lahore service from London Heathrow.

The airline also announced plans to go up against British Airways on the Heathrow to Islamabad route, as well as launching Manchester to Islamabad.

British Airways is now fighting back.

BA announced its own Heathrow to Lahore service yesterday. There will be four flights per week from 12th October. It will be operated with a Boeing 787-8 so you won’t get the new Club Suite business class seat.

BA is also turning up the heat on Islamabad. Flights have quietly been increased to daily, starting this week. It was not meant to go daily until October.

Pakistan International Airways was recently blocked from flying to EU and UK airspace after it was found that over 30% of its pilots held fraudulent licences. It recently re-launched services to Birmingham and Manchester by wet leasing an aircraft from Hi-Fly. This meant that PIA did not have to use its own pilots or crew. BA and Virgin have a clear run at the London market.

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As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

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