Pakistan’s private airline, Serene Air has announced to commence international operations from this month (March).

The airline that was granted permission to operate international flights by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) back in December will be taking off with its first international flight from Islamabad to Sharjah on March 16.

"We will start Serene Air service from Dubai on April 2," Muhammad Safdar Khan, CEO of Serene Air, told Khaleej Times.

The Serene Air airline initiated its domestic operations in 2017, and in March conducted chartered flights to bring back stranded Pakistanis from the Middle East amid the COVID pandemic.

The private airline was previously scheduled to begin its flight operations in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates from January 2021, however, the plans took a backtrack due to worldwide travel restrictions in place due to COVID lockdowns."Initially, we will launch three weekly flights from Sharjah to Islamabad and three weekly flights from Dubai to Lahore. We may increase the frequency if demand improves with ease in travel restrictions globally," Khan said.

The airline’s CEO informed that they had secured all regulatory approvals to start the UAE and Saudi operations.

“We are ready to launch regular commercial services to the UAE with Dubai and Sharjah flights. However, we will announce flight schedule for Saudi operations in due course of time,” Khan said.