Zardari's Air Indus to replace PIA

President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari is going to launch Air Indus alias Indus Airlines, his private airline to replace the ailing PIA, the national flag carrier, being pushed to dead-end deliberately just to pave the way for his new private airline.

Air Indus alias Indus Airlines, is reportedly owned by Faryal Talpur MNA, sister of President Asif Ali Zardari and is registered in Bahamas Islands. It is further reported that the news of PIA planes’ crash landings, technical faults and flights delays were being propagated purposefully on daily basis and despite repeated call no step had been taken for complete overhaul of the airline so that the PIA could be declared bankrupt and unfeasible entity.

The sources said that the airline will be run by former Managing Director PIA Ijaz Haroon, who was removed as MD PIA after prolong strike and protest by PIA employees and pilots.

The website of the Air Indus, cached at Google, said that the airline will be launched soon. According to the site, which displays the routes of the airline through map, the airline will run its flights to almost all domestic stations in Pakistan to which the PIA currently operates flights. The airline will operative flight on almost all domestic routes, besides major international routes.

Interesting, the domestic routes of the airline include those on which no private airline currently runs flight and as per PIA management, these routes are financially unviable such as flight from Peshawar to Chitral and Rawalpindi to Gilgit and Skardu.

Update 2nd January: Air Indus alias Indus Airlines has been granted approval by the Civil Aviation Authority. Pakistan Air Lines has demanded that Indus Airlines' Licence be cancelled.

Moreover, Indus has already acquired an office at the Jinnah International Airport, which is not operational yet. The company has hinted that it plans to start its operations by Mid-March. The company has hired Executive Officers from PIA as well as other Airlines, but has not yet decided about the types of Aircraft it will induct in its fleet.

A spokesperson for Indus said the Airline is a consortium of various companies, has acquired offices and is hiring staff in different departments.

The airline will host an inauguration ceremony soon where further details will be provided to the media, the spokesperson added.