3 new airlines seek CAA’S permission to operate flights

KARACHI: Three new airlines on Friday have sought Regular Public Transport (RPT) permit from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to operate domestic flights across Pakistan.

As per details, three new airlines Q-airlines, Fly Jinnah and Jet Green Airlines have sought permission from the CAA to operate domestic flights in the country. Sources privy to the development said that scrutiny of two Q-airlines and Fly Jinnah has been completed while Jet Green Airlines is still going through the process of scrutiny.

Ater scrutiny, two cases have been forwarded to the Aviation Division and ater approval from the federal cabinet, the RPT licences would be issued to them. The case of third airline will also be forwarded to the Aviation Division ater scrutiny, the sources said. According to the CAA laws, new airlines are bound to operate domestic flights for a year at least with three aircrat and ater completion of the period, they are allowed to operate international flights.

It is to be noted that three private companies namely, Airblue, Sereneair and Airsial are already operating in Pakistan and ater approval of three new airlines the number of private airlines operating in the country will be six.

Recently, it was reported that a team of foreign experts will work on a five-year corporate business plan for Pakistan International Airlines (PIA).

The four-member team will stay in Pakistan for 12 days during which it will undertake a business model review and also meet government officials at the finance ministry, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Institutional Reforms and Austerity Dr Ishrat Hussain, senior government officials and the PIA chief executive officer, Arshad Malik.

The experts, who have an extensive consultancy experience, will devise a business plan for the airline to make it profitable and sustainable.

“We will be following the government’s directives on restructuring and reforms in the airline,” PIA spokesman Abdullah Hafeez said.

Hussain is supervising the reforms underway in PIA and in this context consultants had been invited to advise on the restructuring plan for the national carrier.