Pakistani cargo service plans royal handling of passengers

Pakistan's first dedicated cargo service, the Royal Airlines, after developing almost all the required auxiliary departments as self-sustaining profit centres, is poised to start a distinguished passenger service by the end of this year.
"The Royal Airline has to be Royal, not run of the mill type. Our passenger service will be very different," managing director, Royal Airlines (Pvt) Limited, Captain Aijaz Ali Faizi said in an interview with APP.
He said the cargo service has proved to be befitting to its name and similarly, the passenger service would also be for the distinguished people only. "We are on track," he said, "moving steadily and steadfastly to become the leading airline of the region."
The airline has already got a licence from the Government of Pakistan to operate regular passenger service. He said the Chartered Division of the airline in Dubai was already operating chartered flights to Iraq and Afghanistan etc like transportation of peacekeepers or health teams, social workers' teams etc. besides running scheduled and unscheduled cargo flights.
"We handle cargo as fresh roses that's why 80 percent domestic and international cargo in the region moves through Royal Airlines.
With Jet, Turbo Prop and Piston engine aircraft for passengers and cargo movement, Royal Airlines never cancelled its flight and earned a repute of timely delivery over this period, Captain. Aijaz Ali Faizi remarked with pride.
This would help the airline to capture the attention of a particular class that cares about such sophistications, he said.
Responding to a query, he said, "we only lack planes for our passenger airline operations and the rest is complete. We will go for Western planes."
However, he said after the new Aviation Policy, the private airlines have been allowed to operate on all international routes, therefore the choice of planes would depend upon the future needs of the airline. For distant destinations, airlines would need bigger planes, he added.
Responding to the present Internet era where today has become yesterday and tomorrow is too late, Captain. Aijaz Ali Faizi said the Royal Airlines meet the wide spectrum of air logistics needs of their customers and rarely have ever turned down a request in this regard.
At present, Royal Airlines has Karachi, Lahore and Dubai scheduled cargo flights and rest of the world is covered through unscheduled chartered flights. However, Captain. Faizi said in a month or so, scheduled flights beyond the region will be started. "We are going international and even to China," he said.