List of airlines of Pakistan

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

PIA Boeing 747-300 in the latest colour scheme

The Pakistan aviation industry was started up when Orient Airways merged with Pakistan International Airlines Corporation (PIAC) to become the national flag carrier of Pakistan called Pakistan International Airlines (PIA). PIA remained the only operator for many years after its creation, but soon private airlines arrived at the scene to compete with the national flag carrier as conditions of the country stabilised.

It was not until the early nineties there was a major growth in the Pakistani aviation market with four new private airlines launching operations. The airline did very well to compete with the well established flag carrier, PIA which was controlled by the government. However, this was not to last as the UN placed economic sanctions on Pakistan and its neighbour, India that caused the airline market to suffer. It caused two of the four airlines to file for bankruptcy and liquidate their assets. The airline industry remained quite stable with PIA developing a strong hold on the international and domestic market for many years. It was not until the early 21st century that the industry started to pick up again that allowed the entry of a new carrier in the market, Airblue which launched operations with new state of the art aircraft. As of August 2007, the aviation market is developing and allowing more services and facilities to be inaugurated as well as the development of a brand new airport to be built for the capital at Fateh Jang.