LAHORE: Pakistan’s third private airline AirSial will start its commercial operations on domestic routes by June 2020, Khaleej Times reported on Monday quoting its sources.
AirSial is expected to launch international service from Dubai next year.
AirSial is third the private sector airline after airblue and Serene Air. Owned by local businessmen of Sialkot, Air Sial will initially link its home base to major airports like Karachi, Lahore, and Islamabad through weekly flights. Later it has plans to connect Peshawar and Quetta and boost flight frequency as per demand on the particular route, according to an airline official.
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A source seeking anonymity told Khaleej Times, “We may start international flight operations from the Middle East by next year and Dubai will be the most preferred choice for our first overseas service,”
The federal cabinet in its recent meeting waived off non-conformance charges on AirSial after it failed to acquire the Air Operation Certificate within the stipulated time of two years and gave a go-ahead to the newly-launched airline to start operations.
The private airline recently signed a deal with New York-listed aircraft lessor AerCap for three Airbus A320 to meet the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) requirement of minimum three airplanes to start domestic operations. It is planning to acquire two more aircraft to increase the fleet size to five so it could be eligible to start its scheduled international services by next year.
In a statement, Dublin-based AerCap said that three aircraft are scheduled to be delivered to AirSial in the second quarter of 2020.
“With the rapid growth in air traffic in Pakistan as well as air liberalisation, AirSial is well positioned to take advantage of this opportunity,” Aengus Kelly, chief executive of AerCap, said. AerCap, which serves approximately 200 customers in 80 countries, is the global leader in aircraft leasing with 1,360 aircraft owned, managed or on order. It has $43.5 billion of total assets as of September 30, 2019. Chairman of AirSial Fazal Jilani acknowledged AerCap for not only recognising the potential of the Pakistan aviation market but also showing their firm belief in the Sialkot business community.
“We at AirSial, along with AerCap, will take our new partnership to the highest of standards and together make AirSial ‘The Pride of Pakistan’,” he said.
Saj Ahmad, chief analyst at StrategicAero Research, said AirSial has secured three Airbus jets from AerCap to start operations, but the real challenge will be having the financial muscle to proliferate routes and convince the CAA to offer it slots so that it can compete directly with state-owned Pakistan International Airline (PIA).
