Shaheen Air permitted to bring back Haj pilgrims from Saudi Arabia

KARACHI: The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has restored the licence of the Shaheen Air International (SAI) to run its operations in order to bring back Haj pilgrims from Saudi Arabia. 

The CAA spokesperson said the airline’s licence has been restored for the purpose of post-Haj operation.

He said more than 325 Haj pilgrims have been left stranded at Madina airport for the last 24 hours. The permission to repatriate them was granted solely on humanitarian grounds, he added.

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) had suspended the flight operations of the airlines over a dispute about nonpayment of arrears totaling over Rs.1.4 billion.

It may be mentioned here that more than 200 Pakistanis were stranded in a Chinese city for over a week when the CAA suspended the airline’s flight operation last month.

Taking notice of media reports about the ordeal of the passengers, Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar had ordered the airline to immediately bring them back.

Afterwards, the CAA gave special permission to the airline to send an aircraft to repatriate the stranded passengers.