Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has reduced fares on domestic and major international flights, including umrah fares. Fares on the Karachi-Islamabad-Karachi and Karachi-Lahore-Karachi routes would now start from Rs7,500 while return tickets for umrah start from Rs54,500 for passengers from Lahore/Islamabad, and from Rs44,500 for passengers from Karachi, the airline said.
PIA had been dealing with what it said was an illegal strike, and praised the teamwork of PIA employees in managing passengers in the face of resulting flight reductions. On 7 February the airline sent two Boeing 777 planes in collaboration with Saudi Airlines to Jeddah to bring back around 800 "umra zaireen", umrah pilgrims. This followed flights on 5 February to ferry about 700 Umra zaireen from Jeddah to Karachi and Islamabad via two Saudi Airlines flights.
PIA also made arrangements with Air Blue on 4 February to accept PIA's confirmed ticket passengers for flights to Karachi, Islamabad, Lahore, Dubai, Muscat, Jeddah and Riyadh. Arrangements had also been made with Shaheen Air to accept PIA's confirmed ticket passengers for domestic flights.
On 12 February PIA reported that its flight schedule has fully returned to normal within two days of ending the strike, expressing gratitude to customers for their confidence in the national carrier. PIA has also pledged to give full refunds for any international and domestic tickets that were not utilised during strike days.
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According to a Suroor Asia blog post, PIA had announced fare discounts for umrah in January 2016