Cabinet green-lights new airline to start operation in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: The federal cabinet on Tuesday approved renewal of a license issued to upcoming airline K2 Airways that has planned to start flights initially on domestic routes for cities including Karachi, Islamabad, Lahore, Gwadar, Skardu and Chitral.

Briefing media regarding decisions taken in the federal cabinet meeting, Fawad Chaudhry said the cabinet nodded renewal of K-2 Airways’ license and approved the issuance of a license to another private airline AirSial.

K2 Airways is a proposed Pakistani airline to be based in Karachi. The airline aims to start Pakistan operations with tourism flights to Skardu and other hilly areas of Pakistan in the initial phase.

The initial launch was expected in May 2019, however, a pandemic crisis led to the delay of the launch.

Read: PROMOTING TOURISM: NEW AIRLINE ISSUED LICENCE TO OPERATE FLIGHTS IN PAKISTAN

K2 Airways Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Tariq Raja, in a meeting with the Secretary Board of Investment (BOI) Pakistan, Fareena Mazhar, yesterday said that they are committed to launching the airline operations in Pakistan at the earliest.

Secretary BOI Ms. @fareena_mazhar met with the delegation from K2 AIRWAYS UAE, headed by the CEO Mr. Tariq Raja. The delegation apprised the Secretary on the progress being made by them to begin their airline services in Pakistan, starting with northern areas of country.1/2 pic.twitter.com/ZQzusGkhGU

— Board of Investment, Pakistan (@investinpak) October 11, 2021

Raja apprised the Secretary BOI on the progress being made by the airline to begin their operations in Pakistan, starting with northern areas of the country.

On the occasion, Secretary BOI assured them of all possible support and highlighted the recently announced incentives in the tourism sector.

In line with the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan to promote tourism and regional connectivity in the country, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) in July had issued a licence to a newly launched private airline to operate flights in Pakistan.

The PCAA had approved the issuance of a Tourism Promotion & Regional Integration (TPRI) licence to the country’s private airline named Alvir Airways (Pvt) Ltd for a period of five years under National Aviation Policy 2019.

“The license has been issued in line with the vision of the Prime Minister of Pakistan to promote tourism and regional connectivity,” the PCAA press release had said.