KARACHI: Pakistani airlines have raised objections with the prime minister against upcoming airline Fly Jinnah, jointly launched by an Emirati group and a Pakistani business conglomerate, but the country's aviation authority has dismissed claims a foreign airline is being allowed to "illegally" acquire a domestic license, saying the airline would be a local carrier as the majority stakeholder was the Pakistani partner.
Lakson Group, one of Pakistan's leading business conglomerates, and Air Arabia Group, the Middle East and North Africa’s first and largest low-cost carrier (LCC) operator, announced last September they had formed a joint venture to launch Fly Jinnah, a low-cost passenger airline serving domestic and international routes from Pakistan.
But the new airline is now facing opposition from Pakistani competitors.
Abdullah Khan, a spokesperson for Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), told Arab News PIA’s chief executive had written two letters to Prime Minister Imran Khan in December and January requesting a meeting over the issue of granting a domestic license to a foreign airline. The letter, seen by Arab News, said two domestic airlines, AirSial and SereneAir, have also objected to the move, though this could not be independently verified.
The PIA spokesperson said the request for the meeting had not yet been accepted.
“Foreign carriers operating domestic routes is termed ‘cabotage' in technical aviation terms and is not allowed even in the most liberal countries as it goes against national interests,” Khan said. “The matter is not against creating competition, as competition brings improvements in products and develops the industry; however the competition has to be fair, in a level playing field.”
In a letter to the PM dated January 7, PIA CEO Arshad Malik said allowing Fly Jinnah operations "will be extremely counterproductive for an ailing and suppressed domestic aviation industry.”
"Technically it [joint venture] translates into an agreement by a local airline with a foreign airline Air Arabia, which will bring their aircraft, capture the local market and use this predatory method to circumvent the National Aviation Policy," the letter said. "This excess opportunity to Air Arabia, under the cloak of foreign investment by Fly Jinnah will virtually allow a foreign carrier to operate domestically, a phenomenon that is controlled by even by the most liberal countries such as the USA."
The PIA CEO thus requested a combined briefing by all domestic airline chief executives for the prime minister "to clarify the facts pertaining to the aforementioned subject and its long-term impact on the economic fate of all domestic airlines which are already struggling to survive."
However, a spokesperson for the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (PCAA) dismissed the claim that the joint venture between Lakson and Air Arabia Group was "illegal."
“In the upcoming airline operator Fly Jinnah, Lakson Group is a majority stakeholder and thus the airline is a local player in the country's aviation sector and will be a Pakistani national air carrier,” he said. “The impression that local routes are being doled out to a foreign airline is not accurate.”
The PCAA spokesperson said the country's civil aviation policy and regulations allowed for the joint venture, which was also in line with the national foreign direct investment (FDI) policy.
PCAA said Fly Jinnah had already received the license and the airline was in the process of getting an air operator's certificate (AOC), after which the permission for flights would be granted.
Fly Jinnah will initially be based in Karachi and operate on a range of domestic routes across Pakistan, before expanding its operations internationally.
Currently Pakistan has only three private airlines, AirBlue, SereneAir and AirSial.
An official at the Lakson Group, the local partner of Air Arabia, declined to comment, while a representative of the UAE-based airline in Pakistan didn’t respond despite repeated calls and messages.
