AirSial, Pakistan’s third private airline has commenced its national operation with its Karachi-Islamabad flights using Airbus A320-200.

The Sialkot-based airline, which is a Rs 3.5 billion project of the members of Sialkot Chamber of Commerce and Industry, is Pakistan’s third privately-owned airline, said an airline’s spokesperson here on Thursday. Initially, AirSial will be relying on three Airbus A320-200s, which have been leased from AerCap in Dublin.

The carrier, which aims to become the leading airline of the region, will be running scheduled flights between Karachi, Islamabad, Lahore, Sialkot and Peshawar in the first phase but plans to extend operations to the Middle East in two years. AirSial flight tickets are now available for online booking on sastaticket.pk, which is Pakistan’s leading online travel booking portal. It may be recalled that AirSial was inaugurated by Prime Minister Imran Khan earlier in December at a ceremony held in Sialkot.

The PM called the launch as “a very important step for the airline industry in Pakistan”.