PIA seeks additional flights to UK ahead of Covid-19 travel ban.

ISLAMABAD -- The Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has asked the United Kingdom to allow four additional flights to the country until April 9 after which it will ban entry to people from four countries, including Pakistan, as part of measures to combat the new, deadlier Covid-19 variant it exported to the world.

London on Friday banned international arrivals from four more countries - Pakistan, Bangladesh, Kenya, and the Philippines - unless they hold dual nationality of Britain or Ireland in view of concerns over new virus variants but opted against including European nations that are facing a resurgence of the virus.

'People are desperately trying to go back to England before April 9, we have requested four additional flights to the United Kingdom and we sincerely hope that we will get permission by today [Monday] or tomorrow [Tuesday],' PIA spokesperson Abdullah Hafeez Niazi told Arab News.

'By now, we have operated three flights and we have transported nearly 900 passengers [to the UK],' he said.

The airline, he added, had planned to operate four more flights to Britain until April 7 through which 'we are hopeful to accommodate 1,000 more passengers'.

PIA would be able to accommodate another 1,000 passengers if London allowed the four additional flights, Niazi further said.

While London claims the decision to suspend travel from the aforementioned nations was based on advice from public health experts and scientific data, no European...