Following the approval granted to Fly Jinnah, another Pakistani airline, AirSial, has now received authorization from the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) to initiate direct flight operations between Bangladesh and Pakistan.
“We have granted clearance to AirSial to operate direct flights between Bangladesh and Pakistan. We have dispatched a letter to the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism in this regard,” CAAB Chairman Air Vice Marshal Md Monjur Kabir Bhuiyan informed BSS today.
In accordance with standard protocol, the airline will now proceed to appoint a General Sales Agent (GSA) in Bangladesh and subsequently apply for the necessary flight slots.
Officials have indicated that AirSial’s operations will not only establish a direct air link between Bangladesh and Pakistan but will also provide Bangladeshi passengers with transit options to diverse international destinations within its network, particularly to countries in the Middle East.
AirSial, a privately-owned airline based in Sialkot, Pakistan, with a fleet of six Airbus aircraft, commenced its operations in August 2015.
In February of this year, CAAB had already approved another Pakistani private airline, Fly Jinnah, to operate direct flights on the Karachi-Dhaka route.
Earlier, Bangladesh’s High Commissioner to Pakistan, Md. Iqbal Hussain, had informed BSS that, subject to approval, AirSial could potentially commence flights to Dhaka within a two-month timeframe.
However, he also noted that Fly Jinnah is currently in the process of expanding its aircraft fleet. The last Pakistani state-owned airline Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) discontinued its flights in 2018.
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