Airbus A300B4-203  (Abbas Ali Collection)

This photo taken at Toulouse Airport, France, shows PIA's very first brand new Airbus A300B4-203 undergoing pre-delivery checks. Here the A300 is sporting pre-delivery test flight French registration F-WZEP and it was delivered to PIA as AP-BAX on March 3, 1980. AP-BAX was one of four brand new A300s ordered by PIA in late 1970s and all these four aircraft were delivered to PIA in 1980. Later, PIA added some used A300s and the airline at one stage had more than ten A300s in its fleet. PIA flew A300s mainly on its Middle East, South Asia and Far East route network. During their early years with PIA, the A300s were also used on airline's flights to various European destinations such as Paris, Frankfurt, Athens and Rome. A300s also saw heavy service on PIA's domestic route network connecting city of Karachi with Lahore, Islamabad, Peshawar and Quetta. PIA also used A300s for Hajj flights from Pakistan to Jeddah. The airline's last active A300s were withdrawn from use in first half of year 2005 after their participation in Hajj flights operation that year

de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter  (Abbas Ali Collection)

This photo shows brand new de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter (AP-AWK) in Canada before its delivery to PIA on February 17, 1971. AP-AWK was one of six brand new Twin Otters delivered to PIA between November 1970 and March 1971. Most of these Twin Otters were deployed to serve remote areas in East Pakistan (now independent Bangladesh) especially on routes which the airline had started with Sikorsky S-61N helicopter service. Twin Otters with their Short Take-Off and Landing (STOL) capability were suitable for short runways in smaller towns in East Pakistan. With the separation of East Pakistan after the war of 1971, the fleet of Twin Otters became surplus for PIA and in October 1972 the airline sold it surviving fleet of five Twin Otters to a French operator - one Twin Otter was lost on ground during enemy air-raid in East Pakistan during 1971 war. PIA became Twin Otter once again when it inducted two of these aircraft in 1985. Twin Otters have long been a common sight wherever a sturdy STOL aircraft is needed and Pakistan's mountainous areas are just such an area. PIA Twin Otters were used to connect Islamabad with cities of Rawalakot and Muzaffarabad in Azad Kashmir. The airline also used Twin Otters to connect Islamabad with Peshawar, Dera Ismail Khan and Mianwali. With Twin Otter flights, Peshawar was linked with Bannu and Parachinar, the capital of Kurram Agency in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). The Twin Otter service to Parachinar, inaugurated in 1993, was historic in nature because it air-linked FATA with the rest of the Pakistan for the first time in country's history. Twin Otters were also offered by PIA on charter basis to various companies especially oil & gas exploration companies. In following years, a number of routes flown with Twin Otter were suspended by PIA and the airline sold its two Twin Otters to an American company in September 2006