PIA - Pakistan International Airlines (PK, Islamabad International) has taken delivery of its first ATR72-500 - AP-BKZ (cn 1029) - following a ferry flight routed Toulouse Francazal-Toulouse Blagnac-Paphos-Muscat.

The aircraft, a former UTair-Ukraine (Kyiv Boryspil) machine, arrived in Karachi International on April 10. Sistership cn 994 is still in storage in France awaiting delivery to Pakistan.

Last year, Pakistan civil aviation authority chairman Muhammad Ali Gardezi said the carrier would be adding a total of five ATR72s to its fleet during the course of 2015 in a bid to improve its overall coverage as well as efficiency.

PIA is already an ATR - Avions de Transport Régional (EVX, Toulouse Blagnac) operator with six ATR42-500s currently used on flights throughout the country as well as to Kabul in neighbouring Afghanistan.