Shaheen Air International

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Shaheen Air International

IATA NL	ICAO SAI	Callsign SHAHEEN AIR
Founded		1993
Hubs		Jinnah International Airport
Focus cities		Allama Iqbal International Airport Islamabad International Airport
Fleet size		10
Destinations		11 (5 Domestic, 6 International)
Headquarters		Karachi, Pakistan
Key people
Website: http://www.shaheenair.com

Shaheen Air International, the second national airline after Pakistan International Airlines, is a Pakistani private airline based in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad. It mainly operates scheduled services in the main cities of Pakistan and to the Gulf. Its main base is Jinnah International Airport (KHI), Karachi, with a hub at Islamabad International Airport (ISB), Islamabad.

1 History
2 Destinations
3 Fleet
4 External links
5 References
6 See also

[edit] History

A 737 of Shaheen at Lahore airport

The airline was established and started operations in December 1993. It was formed as a project of the Shaheen Foundation, Pakistan Air Force. In October 1994, it was designated as the second national carrier of Pakistan and in February 1995 began international operations, with a scheduled service between Peshawar and Dubai. When the airline started, it operated a fleet of Tupolev Tu-154 aircraft on most of its domestic flights.

In recent years in July 2004, the airline management was changed due to its fall in productivity and unsuccessfulness of its previous approach. It was taken over by TAWA International Inc. of Canada. The new chairman of Shaheen Air, Khalid M Sehbai, has made a huge Foreign Direct Investment in Shaheen Air with the sole objective to take the airline back to its successful past.

During November 2004, the airline inducted its first Boeing 737-200 for its main route of Karachi-Lahore-Karachi. The airline began phasing out of its Russian aircraft to improve services and efficiency as oil prices were on the rise.

During 2005, the cargo division of the airline also grew when it signed an accord with the Pakistan Post and British Airways Cargo to facilitate exporters by airlifting 150 tonnes of export cargo. For this purpose, Shaheen Air Cargo's division had also acquired IL-76 aircraft. The aircraft will be used on Dubai - Karachi routes. The initial two flights on January 3 and 5 carried about 100 metric tonnes export cargo that was delivered at Dubai for onward transportation to Europe and USA by British Airways flights.

In 2006, Shaheen Air International (SAI) became Shaheen Air and the airline introduced a new livery and website to become inline with technological advances that were taking place in the industry. The airline also introduced flights to Quetta - Karachi. The Governor of Balochistan said that the improvement of air links was also discussed in the ongoing talks between Pakistan and Iran and he has offered the management of Shaheen Air to operate Quetta - Zahidan sector flights. He said that initially SAI is operating with eight flight schedules on Karachi-Quetta route and Quetta - Lahore route. He announced that SAI would also operate flight between Islamabad and Quetta later on.

On May 22, 2006 The Civil Aviation Authority stopped all flights of Shaheen Air because it owed millions of ruppees to the CAA. The managements of the airline were pre-informed about the CAA decision and the ban would remain intact until the further decision by the aviation regulators. On May 25, 2006, Shaheen Air International (SAI) was cleared by the CAA to resume its domestic and international operations. The clearance letter was issued by CAA following receipt of the cheque from SAI towards payment of the outstanding dues to the satisfaction of CAA.

On September 18, 2006, it was announced that Shaheen Air was to start a four times weekly service from Islamabad to Robin Hood Airport Doncaster Sheffield in the U.K.[1] Instead, as of March 2007, service to London Luton Airport is planned, followed by service to Leeds Bradford Airport.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Destinations

Shaheen Air International operates the following services (at February 2007):

[edit] Pakistan

[edit] Middle East

[edit] Europe

London (London Luton Airport) [starts 29 March 2007]
Leeds Bradford (Leeds Bradford Airport) [starts Summer 2007]

[edit] Fleet

Shaheen Air fleet consists of the following aircraft (as of February 2007):

4 Boeing 737-200

A single Boeing 767-200 or Airbus A310-300 is to join the fleet shortly and will be used for London Luton Airport service starting from March and Leeds Bradford Airport from later in Summer 2007, a Boeing 737-300 and 737-400 are also to be added in the future.

[edit] External links

[edit] References

The News, Jang Newspapers "Shaheen Air, British Airways reach accord"
Dawn Nespapers "Shaheen Air, Pak Post ink accord"
Jand Newspapers "Shaheen Air inducts Boeing"
The Nation, Pakistan Edition "Shaheen Air starts Quetta flights"

[edit] See also

	Airlines of Pakistan
Current Airlines	Aero Asia • Airblue • PIA • SAI • JSA
Cargo Airlines	DHL Cargo Pakistan • Pakistan International Cargo • Royal Airlines Cargo • Star Air • TCS Couriers
Charter Companies	Askari Aviation • Jahangir Siddiqui Charter • Royal Airlines • Schon Air • Pricely Jets
Future Airlines	Air Mashriq • DIA • Pearl Air • Safe Air
Defunct Airlines	Bhoja Air • Hajvairy Airlines • Orient Airways • Pak-Air • Raji Airlines • Super Airways
Other	Airports • CAA of Pakistan • List of airlines • List of defunct airlines • Shaheen Airport Services • Transport