Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), according to Aviation Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan, is aiming to launch direct flights to Australia.

Mr Khan told reporters on Sunday that initially, two weekly flights would fly between Karachi, Lahore, and Sydney, with Islamabad being added later.

He stated that due to the lack of direct flights between Pakistan and Australia, it took approximately 35 hours to arrive in the country with stopovers in between.

Mr Khan went on to say that the national carrier has restarted flights to Syria’s capital Damascus, as well as to Malaysia and Iraq, after a 22-year hiatus, and that beginning next month, “we plan to launch direct flights to Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku, from Karachi and Lahore.”

In addition, the minister stated that PIA would be expanding its network and adding four narrow-body aircraft to its fleet on dry lease in March to improve flight operations.