By Air, Lahore

Lahore is easily accessible by air.

Following International airlines land at Lahore International airport which is located about 15 km from the city center

• Airblue (Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Muscat, Sharjah)

• Emirates (Dubai)

• Etihad Airways (Abu Dhabi)

• Gulf Air (Bahrain)

• Kuwait Airways (Kuwait City)

• Pakistan International Airlines (Abu Dhabi, Bangkok, Barcelona, Beijing, Copenhagen, Dammam, Delhi, Doha, Dubai, Glasgow, Hong Kong, Jeddah, Kuwait, London-Heathrow, Manchester, Milan, Muscat, New York-JFK, Paris, Riyadh, Tokyo, Toronto.

• Qatar Airways (Doha)

• Saudi Arabian Airlines (Jeddah, Riyadh, Medina)

• Shaheen Air International (Abu Dhabi, Al-Ain, Doha, Dubai, Kuwait, Muscat)

• Singapore Airlines (Singapore)

• Thai Airways International (Bangkok)

Domestic airlines

• Airblue (Karachi)

• Pakistan International Airlines (Bahawalpur, Dera Ghazi Khan,Islamabad, Hyderabad, Karachi, Multan, Nawabshah, Peshawar, Quetta, Rahim Yar Khan, Sukkur)

• Shaheen Air International (Karachi)

The new Lahore Airport was opened in 2003. Compared to the old one, it is a huge improvement, because it now is very modern, spacious and has all the facilities that you would expect from an international airport.

I actually feel that it is "under-utilized" at the moment because during the day you will see most of the departure/arrival gates empty. So they definitely have capacity to cater for additional flights from international destinations.

Now you can fly to Lahore even from/via Central Asia - UZBEKISTAN. Uzbekistan airways has started 3x week service to/from Tashkent-Lahore. They fly from Lahore to Tashkent on Tuesdays (11.00 hrs), Wednesdays (22.30 hrs) & Fridays (11.15 hrs), arrving in Tashkent after 2 hrs.

On Tuesday, there are good connections further from Tashkent to other European cities like London, Paris & Rome where as on the other days there are over night stay in Tashkent before your connecting flight.

Their current (November 2006) oneway fare from Lahore via Tashkent to London/Paris/Frankfurt is 26,000 Pakistani Rupees/430 USD (1 USD=60.5 PKRs.)

I had a great experience flying Saudi from JFK to JED.

I cant say the same for the flight from Jeddah to Lahore. The Plane was a 747 Jumbo Jet, however it was an older version and lacked TV screens and the like. It looked like it needed some repairs. Not only that, but the inside seemed to have some broken parts. I wasn't feeling too confident when I saw the bathroom wall detach slightly from the cabin ceiling.

The food was ok, and the air hostesses were nice and spoke Urdu. However, the plane was horrible, and it smelled. Plus, on my return flight from Lahore to Riyadh, there were many people who seemed to have never flown before, and they were trying to smoke in the plane, and spitting. What a shame.

It seems that Saudi gives first class treatment to Westerners flying to Saudi from Europe or North America. But when people from the third world fly from Saudi to their native countries, they hoard them in planes like animals. Typical

I last flew PIA to Lahore in 1999. The flight made a quick stop at Shannon in Ireland.

While the flight was only about half an hour late, the service on the plane was a mixed bag. The food isn't too bad, but the bathrooms get dirty quick. They ran out of pillows and blankets, and when I asked the Air host how this had happened, he simply remarked that they had only packed about 25 on the plane. Consider that the plane holds about 350 people, that was odd.

My biggest complaint though is not due to PIA itself. Its due to the small seats found in all airplanes. Im a tall guy, so Im always cramped, it's not helped by Pakistani aunties who want to lean back and crush my legs on a 16 hour flight.

Arent we supposed to have teleportation by now?

However, the 747s PIA uses do have TV sets in each seat, which helps to numb your mind for the flight. However, the sound wasnt always working, I must have spent most of the flight watching the map of where we were.

Departure from Allama Iqbal Intl. Airport was made very easy and comfortable by introducing new facilities at the airport. The waiting lounges were made very luxurious and comfortable for the passenegers. As u can see in the pic that there is a very clean adn beautiful lounge having nice sitting arrangement for the passengers.

This is the view of the airport while sitting inside the plane on Allama Iqbal International Airport, Lahore. Here in the picture you can see the name of the airport written in the local language which is Urdu. It's written form is very similar to Arabic and Perssian.

Lahore has got a New international Airport which has start functioning from 14th August 2002 - The date of the Independence day of Pakistan. There are many airlines which fly in and out of Lahore. PIA which is Pakistan international Airline and PAkistan's offcial airline, is really good in service and punctuality. There are many flights daily from Karachi, Islamabad, Quetta and Peshawer as well.