Pakistan’s AirSial completes certification, preps for launch

AirSial (PF, Karachi Int’l) will begin commercial flight operations on Friday, December 25, after completing all of its regulatory requirements. To facilitate the start-up’s launch, the Pakistani federal cabinet extended the validity of its Regular Public Transport (RPT) earlier this month. AirSial is owned by the Sialkot Chamber of Commerce and Industries and initially secured its RPT in 2017 but failed to launch within the requisite two-year window. As such, it required an extension to secure its AOC and commence services. Its RPT was first extended in January 2020, paving the way for the planned April 2020 launch. This plan, however, was jeopardised by the COVID-19 pandemic, necessitating further adjustments to its launch date. Following multiple delays, AirSial took delivery of its first A320-200 on November 29, followed by a second on December 5 and the third, and for now its last, on December 11. All three aircraft are dry-leased from AerCap and have been reactivated after eight to 10 months of storage at Goodyear following early 2020 retirements by their previous operators. AirSial plans to use the three aircraft to connect its base at Karachi Int’l to Lahore Int’l, Islamabad Quaid-e-Azam Int’l (3x daily each), Peshawar (4x weekly), and Sialkot (3x weekly). The start-up received political blessing from the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan, who attended AirSial’s formal launch ceremony at Sialkot airport on December 9.