Pakistan latest airline startup Air Sial has operated its proving flight PF1786 from Karachi to Islamabad using its Airbus A320 AP-BOC. The flight took one hour 35 minutes and landed at 1.19 Islamabad time. Airline officials and staff travelled on the flight as it is gearing up for its inaugural flight on 25 of December. Air Sial received its three Airbus A320s and based two of those at Karachi Airport while one of the aircraft arrived at its base Sialkot International Airport. The airline will operate scheduled flights from 5 cities in Pakistan. Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Peshawar and Sialkot will be served by the airline.
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AP-BOC
Phot credit on Photo by Syed Zohaib Zaidi
This aircraft is an ex Avianca El Salvador jet that took its first flight on 16 May 2008. It was delivered to TACA International Airlines which became Avianca El Salvador. The aircraft remained in South America with the same airline throughout its life. The aircraft took off on 9th December from Phoenix Goodyear Airport to Portsmouth International Airport, USA for its delivery flight. From Portsmouth it flew to Reykjavik same day and next day on 10 December from Reykjavik to Cairo, Egypt. On 11 December the aircraft took off from Cairo for its final leg of delivery flight to Karachi’s Jinnah International Airport.
AP-BOB
This aircraft is an ex Avianca El Salvador jet that took its first flight on 21 May 2008. It was delivered to TACA International Airlines which became Avianca El Salvador. The aircraft remained in South America with the same airline throughout its life. The aircraft took off on 3rd December from Phoenix Goodyear Airport to Portsmouth International Airport, USA for its delivery flight. From Portsmouth it flew to Reykjavik and next day from Reykjavik to Cairo, Egypt. Today it took off from Cairo for its final leg of delivery flight to Sialkot International Airport.
AP-BOA
The first aircraft to join Air Sial fleet was an ex Air New Zealand Airbus A320 that is over 16 years old. It was delivered to Air New Zealand in September 2004 while it took its first flight on July 13, 2004. Its delivery flight took off from Phoenix Goodyear Airport (USA) via Portsmouth International Airport (USA) and Belfast International Airport Republic of Ireland and Cairo International Airport (Egypt). The airline now plans to start operation in December 2020 after several delays and deadlines have passed.
The airline signed agreement for the acquisition of 3 Airbus A320 aircraft. On 6 August 2019 Air Sial Executive Board Chairman Fazal Jillani signed an agreement with Aercap representatives. Fazal Jillani is CEO of Surgicon private limited and he is also a director at the Sialkot International Airport board.
Air Sial is planning to start operations from the past 5 years. The airline initially hinted on starting operations in the last quarter of 2016. As in 2016, its chairman Fazal Jillani said that “as many as 35 leading Overseas Pakistani investors have shown a keen interest in investing the grand project of “Air Sial” airline.” The airline was registered by the Security Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) as “Air Sial Limited” company. The company’s board of director appointed Sialkot based exporter Ameen Ehsan as the airline CEO, unanimously.
