Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) is set to fly its first-ever Boeing 787 Dreamliners next month, after signing a lease agreement with Norwegian carrier Norse Atlantic Airways to bring two of the widebody jets into its fleet, the airline confirmed on Friday.
The deal, reported first by Dawn and separately confirmed by ARY News, Daily Times and several other outlets, will see PIA operate two Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners under an ACMI (aircraft, crew, maintenance and insurance) arrangement — commonly known as a wet lease. The aircraft are expected to join PIA’s operations in November, marking the first time a Boeing 787 has flown in Pakistani livery.
What the Deal Covers
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Aircraft | 2 x Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner |
| Lease type | ACMI (wet lease) |
| Lessor | Norse Atlantic Airways |
| Expected induction | November 2026 |
| Routes | Direct Pakistan–United Kingdom long-haul flights |
| Significance | First Boeing 787s ever operated by PIA / in Pakistan |
Under an ACMI lease, Norse Atlantic will continue to supply the aircraft, crew, maintenance and insurance, while PIA sells the tickets and operates the routes under its own brand. The jets will be deployed on direct, long-haul services between Pakistan and the United Kingdom, one of PIA’s most important overseas markets given the size of the British-Pakistani diaspora.
PIA Chief Executive Officer Amir Hayat said the agreement reflects the importance of the UK market to the airline’s network:
“The UK is an important market for PIA, and this agreement will add much-needed capacity and choice for passengers on these routes,” Hayat said, according to Dawn.
Norse Atlantic Airways Chief Executive Eivind Roald said the arrangement allows his airline to redeploy aircraft it no longer needs elsewhere. Norse currently leases Boeing 787-9s to budget carrier IndiGo under a damp-lease arrangement that is due to wind down by the end of October, freeing up jets the Oslo-based carrier has been looking to place with other airlines, including Bangladesh’s Biman, according to industry reports.
Part of a Wider Fleet Push
An unnamed PIA spokesman described the Dreamliner addition as “the start of the airline’s expansion” to meet rising passenger demand, and linked it to the national carrier’s broader push under its new management to modernise its fleet and improve passenger facilities following its restructuring. The airline currently flies a mix of Airbus A320s and Boeing 777s on its network, and the arrival of the more fuel-efficient 787-9 would give it extra widebody capacity without a multi-year wait for new aircraft orders.
No financial terms, exact lease duration or further aircraft orders were disclosed. The development comes in the same week that PIA suspended its Riyadh flights following Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia, underlining how the airline is simultaneously managing network disruptions on one route while expanding on another.
Our Opinion
A wet-leased pair of Dreamliners is a modest step for an airline that has talked for years about fleet renewal, but it is a sensible one — PIA gets extra widebody capacity on a key diaspora route without the capital outlay or multi-year wait of a direct purchase, and Norse gets to redeploy jets it would otherwise be scrambling to place elsewhere. The real test will be whether this ACMI arrangement is the opening move in a genuine, sustained fleet upgrade or just a stopgap bolted on to an airline still working through the aftermath of partial privatisation; either way, Pakistani travellers on the UK corridor should welcome any addition of modern, more comfortable aircraft to a route that has long been serviced by ageing jets.
