KARACHI: A Saudi prince’s plans to acquire privately-owned air carrier, Shaheen Air International is akin to “breathing new life into Pakistan’s dying aviation industry”, experts said on Friday.
“Shaheen Air International has finalized its acquisition deal with a Saudi prince. The takeover is likely to happen over the course of the next two months,” Zohaib Hassan, spokesman of Shaheen Air International (SAI), told Arab News, without naming the investor.
He added that more details would be unveiled in a joint news conference next week.
“We will be conducting a press conference very soon to announce the name of the investor and share details of the acquisition. This will be a breakthrough deal for the airline as well as for Pakistan’s aviation industry,” Javed Sehbai, acting CEO of SAI, said in a statement released on Thursday.
“It’s a matter of a few weeks before Shaheen Air takes to the skies again and shines brighter than before. Due payments of government regulatory bodies and our employees’ salaries are our first priority and will be cleared during the first stage of our investment plans,” he added.
Shaheen Air commenced its operations as Pakistan’s first private airline in December 1993. “It operates on various domestic and international routes and in 2015, it became the only private airline from Pakistan to fly east with non-stop flights from Lahore to Guangzhou, China,” Sehbai said.
However, the airline’s domestic and international operations were suspended due to a dispute with Pakistan’s Civil Aviation Authority over non-payment of arrears amounting to more than Rs1.5 billion.
“Once Shaheen Air was the top private airline of Pakistan but the past several months have been difficult for us. Our offices are sealed and our operations suspended. In such a scenario, the Saudi investment is like a new life for the airline,” Sehbai said.
Tariq Abul Hasan, an expert in civil aviation for more than two decades, recalls a time when Pakistan’s aviation industry was flourishing, specifically until the mid-80s when Pakistan’s national carrier, the PIA, was one of the 10 best airlines in the world.
In the private sector, however, Shaheen Air was the country’s top private airline with its own hanger and best engineering staff. “PIA was the first Asian airline which started direct flights for Europe. Pakistan’s civil aviation industry was once the fastest growing, with more than 40 airlines, including the world’s top airline, flying from Karachi,” he said, adding that in the current situation, the Saudi investment is a major relief for the sector.
Shaheen Air, besides ensuring profitable routes for Europe and Gulf, also has a permit for operating Hajj flights, Hasan said, adding that in order to fly higher, “all it needed was this deal.”