Pakistan International Airlines (also referred to as PIA), is the national flag carrier of Pakistan and the national airline operating passenger and cargo services around the world. Its main hubs are Jinnah International Airport, Karachi, the Allama Iqbal International Airport, Lahore and the Islamabad International Airport, Islamabad/Rawalpindi.
It also serves regional airports, including Peshawar International Airport, Peshawar, Faisalabad International Airport, Faisalabad and Multan International Airport, Multan that connect to the main hubs and have flights to the Middle East.
Pakistan International Airlines PIA can trace its beginnings to the days when Pakistan still was not a nation. In 1946, Muhammed Ali Jinnah, also known as Quaid-e-Azam, realized the need for an airline network for the forming country. He called upon the help of an experienced industrialist Mirza Ahmad Ispahani. Orient Airways, registered in Calcutta, was formed on October 23 1946, In February 1947, three DC-3 airplanes were bought from a company in Texas, and in May of that year, the airline was granted a license to fly. Services were started in June from Calcutta to Akyab and Rangoon. This was the first post war airline flight by a South Asian registered airline company.
Two months after this service began, Pakistan as a nation was formed. Orient Airways began relief flights to the new nation, and soon after, it moved operations to Karachi, where it began the important route from Karachi to Dhaka. In addition, their initial domestic route in Pakistan was established, from Karachi to Lahore to Peshawar, and from Karachi to Quetta to Lahore.
The government of Pakistan, realizing the operation was failing economically, asked the airline to merge into a new national airline that the government was planning. On March 11 of 1955, Orient Airways merged with the Government's proposed airline, becoming Pakistan International Airlines Corporation. During the same year the airline opened its first international service, under the PIA name, from Karachi to London Heathrow Airport in London, United Kingdom, via Cairo International Airport in Cairo, Egypt and Leonardo Da Vinci International Airport in Fiumicino, Italy using Lockheed Constellations. The DC-3s continued operating the domestic services in Pakistan.
