Pakistan Airways (Karachi International) may finally launch under a Pakistani government plan to improve regional connectivity within the country. Pakistan Airways was approved to fly in 2016 but failed to transition from start-up status. However, according to the Express Tribune, a regional connectivity plan will see the airline activated, airports reopened, and domestic connectivity improved.
Pakistan Airways is owned by state-owned PIA - Pakistan International Airlines (PK, Islamabad International). Under the plan, PIA will be able to enter into partnerships with foreign carriers to improve domestic services. This approval would cover a possible foreign joint venture partner for Pakistan Airways. The shortage of domestic airline services and lack of aircraft in the country is becoming a pressing issue for the government. According to Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (PCAA) data, there are just 218 aircraft registered in a country of 225 million people, with the majority of those planes being small private aircraft.
The Tribune says only 15 airports in Pakistan handled scheduled passenger aircraft and only five of the country's ten biggest cities have scheduled services at their local airport. The government plan acknowledged the difficulty of operating regional domestic flights under the current regulatory framework and said existing rules favoured PIA and international operators like Emirates (EK, Dubai International).
On the agenda are small aircraft seating 20 passengers or less that will fly to all airports across Pakistan. The plan did not specify how, when, or from where the aircraft would come from.
According to the ch-aviation PRO airlines module, there are five scheduled passenger airlines based in Pakistan, including the recently launched Fly Jinnah. That airline is presently concentrating on flights within Pakistan but is sticking to the main airports of Islamabad Quaid-e-Azam Int'l, Karachi Int'l, Lahore International, Peshawar, and Quetta. It is this type of concentrated operating model that the Pakistani government hopes to change.
