Shaheen Air gears up to fly on new international routes

Court allows airline to fly to new destinations till the next hearing of case

KARACHI:  

The Sindh High Court has granted Shaheen Air International (SAI) permission to expand operations to new domestic and international destinations, according to an announcement made by the airline on Saturday.

Earlier, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) had barred the private air carrier from flying on the Multan-Muscat route late last month because of alleged delay in submitting a formal application.

An official of the airline told The Express Tribune that Shaheen Air was set to start flying on the Multan-Muscat route this weekend.

The court has issued a stay order, allowing the carrier to fly on new routes till May 8 and summoned the CAA in the next hearing of the case.



According to the official, CAA's officers had not appeared before the court in the previous two hearings held last week.

In the wake of the stay order, the airline will also operate on more new routes such as Multan-Sharjah, Faisalabad-Jeddah, Faisalabad-Riyadh and Faisalabad-Karachi.

SAI Chief Marketing Officer Zohaib Hassan said the expansion of operations became possible following the induction of four new aircraft this year, which took the fleet to 26.

The new aircraft are narrow-body and they will mostly fly on domestic routes. Their induction has allowed the airline to fly wide-body aircraft on new long-distance international routes.



"We will continue to find new routes in the Far East...the airline is to receive three more narrow-body aircraft this year," he said.

Earlier, the CAA had given 45 days to SAI for submission of required documents for the renewal of its Regular Public Transport licence.

In this matter too, the court issued a stay order against the CAA's directive for filing documents within 45 days for licence renewal.

Shaheen Air is the second largest carrier of Pakistan that carries 3.5 million passengers per annum. At present, it flies to seven domestic and 13 international destinations.