List of airlines of Pakistan
The Pakistan aviation industry started with Orient Airways, founded on 23 October 1946. Orient Airways commenced operations with four Douglas DC-3s on 4 June 1947 and ceased its operations on 11 March 1955 by merging into the Pakistan International Airlines Corporation (PIAC; founded in 1954) to become the national flag carrier of Pakistan called Pakistan International Airlines (PIA).
PIA remained the main operator since its founding till the early 1990s, although several private airlines initiated and ceased operations during this time. These included Pak Air (1948–49), Pakistan Mercantile Corporation (1948), Crescent Air Transport (1952–54) and Agricultural Aviation (1973–75), although the latter merged into ASSL which is still operational.
The privatisation reforms of the early 1990s and a flexible aviation policy led to the initiation of several private airlines, resulting in a major growth in the Pakistani aviation market with five new private airlines launching operations (Shaheen Air International, Aero Asia International, Bhoja Air, Hajvairy Airlines, Raji Airlines, Schoen Air) and offering some competition to the national flag carrier.
The private airlines did very well to compete with the well established flag carrier, PIA, which was controlled by the government. However, this was not to last as the UN placed economic sanctions on Pakistan that caused the airline market to suffer. It caused two of the four airlines to file for bankruptcy and liquidate their assets. The airline industry remained quite stable with PIA developing a strong hold on the international and domestic market for many years. It was not until the early 21st century that the industry started to pick up again that allowed the entry of a new carrier in the market, Airblue, which launched operations with new state of the art aircraft. As of August 2007, the aviation market was developing and allowing more services and facilities to be inaugurated as well as the development of a brand new airport to be built for the capital at Fateh Jang.
Current airlines
As of March 2017, there are four active passenger airlines that operate both domestic and international flights from Pakistan and one that operates domestically within Pakistan. [1] On Oct 29th, 2017; Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority had confirmed that four new private operators had applied for the (RPT) air licence.[2] The new four are:-
- Askari Air Pakistan
- United Airways Pakistan Limited (Air Pakistan)
- Liberty Air
- Afeef Zara Airways
- Air Sial
Airline | Image | IATA | ICAO | Callsign | Hubs |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Airblue | PA | ABQ | AIRBLUE | Jinnah International Airport (Karachi) | |
Askari Air Pakistan | 4K | AKP | ASKARI AIR | - | |
ASSL | - | ACS | AIRCRAFT SALES | Jinnah International Airport (Karachi) | |
Pakistan International Airlines | PK | PIA | PAKISTAN | Jinnah International Airport (Karachi) | |
Princely Jets | - | PJP | PRINCELY JETS | Jinnah International Airport (Karachi) | |
Serene Air | ER | SEP | SERENE | Jinnah International Airport (Karachi) [3] | |
Star Air Aviation | 6S | URJ | STARAV | Jinnah International Airport (Karachi) | |
Vision Air International | - | VIS | DREAM BIRD | Jinnah International Airport (Karachi) |
See also
- List of defunct airlines of Pakistan
- List of airlines
- List of defunct airlines of Asia – includes defunct airlines of Pakistan
- Civil Aviation Authority of Pakistan
- Civil Aviation Training Institute
References
- ↑ Reporter, The Newspaper's Staff (30 January 2017). "Serene Air operational on domestic routes".
- ↑ "Four New Private Airlines Apply for License in Pakistan". 28 October 2017.
- ↑ "SereneAir". www.sereneair.com.
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