Pakistan’s Q Airways plans 3Q22 debut; eyes widebodies

Q Airways plans to commence flights operations in July or August once it has obtained its air operator's certificate, its COO Syed Kamran Hasan said. As previously reported, the Pakistani government authorised in January that a domestic Regular Public Transport (RPT) operating licence could be granted to the start-up. Q Airways will initially operate flights between Karachi Int'l, Lahore Int'l, and Islamabad Quaid-e-Azam Int'l. “We have already received the RPT,” Hasan confirmed. “Now we are working to become eligible for an AOC. We will start domestic operations as soon as we receive it.” The investor behind Q Airways is Ramada Plaza Group, owned by Mohammad Anwar Qureshi, who is also the owner of Ramada Hotels Group’s operations in Pakistan. No foreign investors are currently involved in the airline, Hasan said but declined to quantify the total investment in the project so far. “We will initially start with three A320-200s. We want to expand after that and will also try for international flights by increasing the size of our fleet with two to three widebody aircraft,” he elaborated.<br/>