Air Indus (MPK, Karachi International) has been given the go-ahead to maintain operations after a Sindh High Court overturned a Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (PkCAA) directive grounding the carrier from Wednesday, July 1.
According to Pakistan's Dawn News, the PkCAA had invoked the country's National Aviation Policy 2015 legislation to order Air Indus to suspend operations claiming the carrier operated under "unsafe conditions" and "persistently violated air safety regulations".
“Despite repeated safety directives and warnings, the operator did not make any improvement and ignored the safety instructions,” the PkCAA said in a brief statement. “In order to ensure safety of passengers, the CAA has suspended Air Indus’s operations."
However, Air Indus lawyers successfully argued that the airline has already lodged a case disputing the validity of the legislation and thus no action can be taken under it. In addition, the court was also told that the PkCAA had not issued Air Indus with a requisite show-cause notice.
The court, as such, suspended the CAA's order and has issued notices to the federal government and CAA for July 6.
ch-aviation records show that of Air Indus' three B737-300s, only one - AP-BLG (msn 27910) - is currently operational. A fourth of the type - AP-BLE (msn 24672) - was returned to Jordan Aviation (R5, Amman Queen Alia) earlier this year.
Despite its difficulties, the Pakistani domestic operator has announced plans to lease three A320-200s to facilitate its planned expansion into the the Saudi Arabian and Middle Eastern markets later this year. Pakistani law requires all international operators to maintain a fleet of at least five aircraft.
