Pakistan International Airlines will fly direct between Islamabad and Birmingham again from 1 December 2026, restoring the only nonstop link between the English Midlands and Pakistan after a five-year absence. Birmingham Airport confirmed the return on 3 November, announcing three flights a week on a Boeing 777 — welcome news for the tens of thousands of families in the Midlands with roots in Pakistan, who have had no direct option since the route was grounded.
The new PIA Islamabad Birmingham flights will operate on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, with bookings already open. Flight PK791 leaves Islamabad at 12:15pm and lands at Birmingham at 4:00pm, while the return flight PK792 departs Birmingham at 6:30pm and arrives in Islamabad at 7:15am the following morning. The outbound journey takes around eight hours and 45 minutes. It is a daytime departure from Pakistan and an overnight return.
PIA Islamabad Birmingham flights: the full schedule
The timetable, published by Birmingham Airport, is straightforward. PIA Islamabad Birmingham flights run three times a week — Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday in both directions — on a Boeing 777. Flight PK791 departs Islamabad International Airport at 12:15pm local time and arrives at Birmingham Airport (BHX) at 4:00pm. Flight PK792 leaves Birmingham at 6:30pm and touches down in Islamabad at 7:15am the next day, with all times local.
Aviation schedule publisher AeroRoutes, which first reported the resumption when reservations opened on 21 October, lists the service initially on a Boeing 777-200LR, switching to a 777-200ER from 10 December. Travellers should still check the aircraft shown for their own travel date when booking, as equipment can change. Fares and baggage terms were not detailed in the airport’s announcement, so confirm those when booking.
For now, the key fact is the frequency: three direct flights a week each way, every week, from the first day of December. That gives Midlands travellers a genuine alternative to the long drive to Heathrow or Manchester, or a connection through the Gulf.
Why Birmingham matters so much to Pakistani travellers
Birmingham is home to one of the largest Pakistani communities in Britain, and the Midlands has long been one of PIA’s strongest markets — which is why the PIA Islamabad Birmingham flights are such a significant restoration. The airport itself describes the route as the only direct service from the region to Pakistan, and its chief commercial officer, Matt Hazelwood, said: “We look forward to seeing the service get underway in December.” For passengers, the value of Islamabad Birmingham direct flights is simple — no change of plane, no long motorway drive to another airport, and arrival in the city where their family actually lives.
The route is also a useful measure of how far PIA has come in the past eighteen months. The airline was forced to suspend all flights to the United Kingdom in 2020, after the fake pilot licence scandal led European and British regulators to ban it. The UK lifted its ban in July 2025, and PIA has been rebuilding its British network step by step since — first Manchester and London Heathrow, and now Birmingham.
There is a commercial logic too. The Birmingham service is aimed squarely at visiting-friends-and-relatives traffic, which is steady, loyal and far less seasonal than holiday travel. A direct Birmingham service also puts pressure on the Gulf carriers — Emirates, Qatar Airways and Turkish Airlines — which have carried the Midlands–Pakistan traffic via their hubs.
The road back: ban, privatisation and new aircraft
The rebuild of PIA UK flights is gathering pace. The airline’s first Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner landed in Islamabad in the past few weeks, and PIA has signed an aircraft lease agreement with Norse Atlantic Airways for two Boeing 787-9s from November 2026 to support its UK services. The Dreamliners free up Boeing 777 capacity currently used on Manchester and London Heathrow, allowing the airline to deploy its own 777s on the PIA Islamabad Birmingham flights.
The rebuild is happening under new ownership. PIA was privatised this year, and the new management has made the UK network a priority — a market where the airline once flew daily and where its brand still carries weight with the diaspora. The appointment of a new chief executive, Adrian Hamilton-Manns, is part of the same reset. Read more about the leadership change in our report on PIA’s new CEO taking charge, and about the new aircraft in our coverage of PIA’s first Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner landing in Islamabad.
None of this guarantees success. PIA must now prove it can run the route reliably, on time, week after week — the very thing that damaged its reputation before the ban. But the demand is plainly there: Birmingham Airport says the service is returning “due to high demand from travellers in the Midlands”.
What travellers should know before booking
Bookings for PIA Birmingham flights in December 2026 are already open through PIA’s usual channels. Our PIA online booking guide explains flights, fares and baggage rules for the airline’s services generally. Passengers on the new PIA Islamabad Birmingham flights should double-check three things in particular: the aircraft type shown for their date, since the 777 variant changes in mid-December; the baggage allowance, which was not specified in the launch announcement; and the terminal at Birmingham, where PIA will operate from the airport’s main terminal.
Travellers should also remember that this is a planned service, not yet flown. The 1 December start date and the three-times-weekly pattern are confirmed by the airport, but schedules can shift before launch, so it is worth re-checking the timings a few days before travel.
For the Midlands’ Pakistani community, though, the headline is simple and long-awaited: from 1 December, you can fly direct from Birmingham to Islamabad again, three times a week, on PIA. After five years of detours, connections and motorway drives to other airports, the direct route home is back — and the PIA Islamabad Birmingham flights are once again on the departure board.
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