Bhoja Air sells only remaining B737-400 to Shaheen Air International

Bulgaria's GullivAir secures AOC

Six carriers eye Pakistani scheduled pax services niche

At least six airlines have applied to the Pakistani Civil Aviation Authority (PkCAA) for regular public transport (RPT) licences of which half expect to start scheduled commercial operations later this year.

The Nation newspaper lists the entrants as Liberty Air (Pakistan), GoGreen Airways, Askari Aviation, United Airways Pakistan, AirSial, and Afeef Zara Airways.

Liberty Air is owned by Ch Munir and Mian Amir while Elahi Group, Danish Elahi and Arshad Jalil control Go Green Airways. Askari Aviation currently operates passenger charters for relief agencies and is owned by the Pakistani Army Welfare Trust. For its part, Air Sial is an initiative of the Sialkot Chambers of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) looking to serve the Middle East, including Jeddah, Dubai, and Doha Hamad International initially before venturing abroad to Europe and North America by Year Five of its business plan.

For its part, United Airways Pakistan is owned by Adnan Tabbni while Afeef Zara Airways is owned by Rashid Siddiqui.

Separately, a sibling of Air Indus (MPK, Karachi...

Bhoja Air AOC temporarily suspended following crash

Bhoja Air (Karachi International) has lost its air operator certificate, at least temporarily, following the crash of its B737-200 AP-BKC (MSN 23167) at Islamabad International on April 20. The Pakistani civil aviation authority has revoked its air operator certificate last week on the basis that Bhoja Air currently does not operate the minimum number of aircraft required to hold an AOC for scheduled passenger transportation. According to the CAA's rules at least three aircraft would be required, but Bhoja Air is only left with one B737-200Adv. and one B737-400 at the moment although it had plans to add two more ex-Comair (South Africa) (CAW, Johannesburg O.R. Tambo) B737-200Adv. aircraft at a later stage. Bhoja Air is however still selling flights from June 10 onwards, so is apparently assuming it will be able to resume operations shortly.

Bhoja Air News Update

Bhoja Air (Karachi International) plans to resume domestic scheduled operations in spring 2012 initially deploying a fleet of four ex-Comair (South Africa) (CAW, Johannesburg O.R. Tambo) B737-200s and an ex-Sky Airlines (Antalya) B737-400. It plans to serve Islamabad International, Lahore International, Multan and Sukkur from its Karachi International base.