Pakistan International Airlines is about to fly the Boeing 787 Dreamliner for the first time, though the planes won't be its own. PIA will lease two Boeing 787-9s from Norse Atlantic Airways to add more flights between Pakistan and the UK, Norse announced on Friday. Operations are set to start in November.
It's a wet lease, which means Norse supplies the planes along with the crews, maintenance and insurance, while PIA sells the tickets and puts the flights under its own name. Airlines often use these deals to add capacity quickly without waiting years for new jets.
New planes
PIA's Borrowed Dreamliners
Contrail
Why PIA Needs the Planes
PIA has been through a dramatic couple of years. The UK banned it in 2020 after a deadly crash in Karachi and an investigation into how some Pakistani pilots had obtained their licenses. The UK lifted the ban in July 2025, and PIA has since returned to Manchester and, from March, to London Heathrow.
The airline also has new owners. Pakistan sold a 75% stake in PIA to a consortium led by Arif Habib Corporation in December 2025, ending decades of state control of an airline that had lost billions. The new owners want to grow the fleet from 19 planes to 64 over roughly eight years, and they're in talks with Boeing for 16 brand-new 787s.
Those new jets are still a way off, though, and PIA's long-haul flying currently relies on aging Boeing 777s. Leasing Norse's Dreamliners lets it add UK capacity now instead of waiting.
The UK is one of PIA's most important markets because of the large British Pakistani community, which flies back and forth to visit family. More flights there should mean more choice and, with any luck, better fares.
Why Norse Is Doing It
The deal says just as much about Norse as it does about PIA. Norse launched as a low-cost airline flying cheap tickets across the Atlantic on Boeing 787s, but high fuel costs have made that business tough. It's now shifting toward leasing its planes and crews to other airlines, which gives it steady income no matter what happens to ticket prices.
That plan took a hit in July, when India's IndiGo said it would end a similar arrangement with Norse. The PIA deal fills part of that gap. Norse operates 12 Boeing 787s, says it's in talks with other airlines about more deals like this one, and began a process in July to explore a possible sale or merger.
What It Means for Passengers
PIA hasn't yet said which UK routes the 787s will fly or how long the lease will last. Since Norse crews will be working the flights, the onboard experience may feel quite different from a typical PIA flight, and passengers will be flying on newer, quieter planes than PIA's older 777s.
For a lot of travelers between the UK and Pakistan, that could be the most noticeable sign yet that PIA's turnaround is real. The airline still has a long way to go, but borrowing a few Dreamliners is a smart way to show it's changing while it waits for its own.
