Pakistan International Airlines

PIA was established on January 23, 1955 as the merger of Orient Airways (founded 1946) and Pakistani government interests. Under its founding Managing Director Nur Khan, PIA grew into one of Asia's finest airlines in the 1960s and 1970s. PIA leased aircraft and provided training to Singapore Airlines' founding staff — a fact that Singapore Airlines acknowledges in its own history. PIA was the first Asian airline to operate a jet aircraft (Boeing 707) and the first to fly to China and the Soviet Union from South Asia.

The airline's decline began with nationalization and increasing political interference from the 1970s onward. By the 2000s and 2010s, PIA was synonymous with financial losses, delays, and poor service. In May 2020, a PIA Airbus A320 crashed near Karachi killing 97 of 99 aboard — an accident that revealed widespread falsification of pilots' licenses across Pakistan's aviation sector, leading to the EU and UK banning PIA from European airspace. The ban remains in force as of 2025, preventing PIA from operating flights to European destinations.

Pakistan's government has repeatedly attempted privatization.