SkyTeam to Pakistan?
 

Just did some poking around the SkyTeam website and it would appear that SkyTeam does not serve any city in Pakistan. That seems like a pretty big gap considering the population of Pakistan and the large Pakistani community in Europe and North America.

I guess this explains why Emirates so popular! Doing some checking it would appear that several *A airlines serve Pakistan: SQ, Thai, TK, Air China...

From what I've seen if Uzbekistan Airways does join SkyTeam, then they would provide service to Lahore, which isn't even the largest city in Pakistan.

Am I mistaken? Malaysia serves Pakistan...any chance of MH joining?

China Southern appear to have a twice weekly (Mon, Fri) flight from Beijing to Islamabad. I think that's about it!

Looks like you are right, checked China Southern's website directly.

SkyTeam should update their website:
http://www.skyteam.com/EN/aboutSkyte...sMap/wasia.jsp

Unfortunately I don't think a lot of people in N. America or Europe would be happy to fly to Pakistan via China Southern to Islamabad.
:(

I have never been to Pakistan, but I'm willing to bet that there had been some sort of AF/KL service and its suspension was related to the political instability in Pakistan. AFAIK, BA have also suspended their flights.

Yep..did some more googling and AF did serve Pakistan but discontinued. Hopefully that will change someday as it is a big market that is currently being dominated by EK, EY, etc...

I agree, but it is the only option if you want to complete the whole itinerary on Skyteam!

Almost certainly. My company will not allow me to travel to Pakistan anyway, as they cannot get travel insurance cover. I have to rely on email, and trade fairs to meet my customers from Pakistan.

Wow that is a shame... Maybe you can meet them in Dubai? It is a pretty short flight for them and I can't image any companies would have a problem with you traveling there...

Lahore is the 2nd largest city of Pakistan
 

btw Lahore is the 2nd largest city of Pakistan

Lufthansa also flies to Pakistan (KHI and LHE), unless they suspended their service also. Add this to the list of SkyTeam Asia shortcomings.

Unfortunately i did not find Islamabad listed on their website. Maybe they were planning to start the service but decided against it. I am not sure. Would be nice if one can find a way to use skymiles for travel to pakistan.

Well considering that in the history of FT and its many millions of posts there have been few if any posts lamenting the lack of ervice to Pakistan by any carrier I would think that it is not a place in great demand by most passenegrs and not by most mainline western carriers. It is directly attributable to ploitical and economic stuation in the country, not to mention that most of the expat communities that you speak of generally do not fly upfront.

Obviously not helpful to the OP but Pan Am flew to Karachi (from FRA) until 1988.

I checked the China Southern website and it does list Islamabad...

And more specifically Pan Am pulled out and Delta did not reactivate the route because their plane was hijacked and many people killed in Pakistan.

I did not know of this incident and looked it up. Terrible.

However, your comment makes it seem that a DL plane was hijacked, when it was a Pan Am aircraft that was hijacked (as I am sure you are aware).

That is a codeshare with PIA with PIA doing the flying. So still not helpful for skymiles.

Oh wow! That is good to know! Dare I dream that some day PIA gets it act together and joins SkyTeam, especially with AI joining StarAlliance...

Duplicate post.

Asking PIA to get its act together is asking for too much. As long as it stays under state control, i do not see much changing. And i do not see the state setting it free. At a time when almost all euro airlines have stopped flying to pakistan, PIA should have been thriving. But they have managed to let EK, EY, QR and even GF eat their breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Going back to skymiles, what i am surprised by is the fact that skyteam made no effort to bring in GF in its fold. It would have been beneficial to both. If an airline like Egyptair can get into Star, why couldn't skyteam get after GF? We know QR, EK and EY have no intention to be part of any alliance but what about GF?

China Southern also serves Islamabad from Urumqi twice weekly. But I guess this is even less helpful for the OP than the Beijing flight :D However, Urumqi is quite handy for transfers to Central Asia (Tajikistan, Kazhakstan, Uzbekistand).