Pakistani airline reduces fare to Beijing by 30 pct

The Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has reduced airfare to Beijing by 30 percent to facilitate travelers from both countries, a PIA spokesperson confirmed on Saturday.

The company reduced the fares after taking into account the repeated demand from students and business people, according to PIA spokesperson Abdullah Hafeez Khan.

"After the resumption of flights to Beijing, a large number of students and businessmen are thronging to China. They repeatedly requested PIA to adjust the fares to the pre-COVID-19 ticket prices, so we did it to facilitate bilateral travel," Khan told Xinhua.

By the move, students get a discount on the fares for the third time since December last year when the airfare was decreased by 23 percent and later by 27 percent.

Figures by the State Bank of Pakistan showed that the Pakistani rupee has depreciated against the U.S. dollar by over 84 percent since February 2020, leading to skyrocketing airfares.