Serene Air adds maiden widebody, an A330-200 ( AP-BNE )

Serene Air (ER, Islamabad Quaid-e-Azam Int'l) took delivery of its first widebody aircraft, an A330-200, on August 27, 2020.

AP-BNE (msn 733), a 14.5-year-old twinjet previously operated by Air Europa (UX, Palma de Mallorca) and owned by Carlyle Aviation Partners, was ferried after maintenance and repainting at Châteauroux directly to Karachi Int'l, Flightradar24 ADS-B data shows. It has yet to be deployed into commercial service.

The A330 is the first of a trio due to join Serene Air's fleet. The privately-owned carrier currently operates four B737-800s on domestic routes within Pakistan. As of September 1, 2020, it intends to operate its full pre-COVID domestic schedule.

"Serene Air is ready to commence international operations to Dubai Int'l and Sharjah in the UAE and followed by Jeddah and Riyadh in Saudi Arabia," Muhammad Safdar Khan, CEO of Serene Air, said in a statement to the Khaleej Times newspaper. "We will foray into the Saudi market later this year and we also have firm plans to explore key destinations in China and the UK."

"With this addition, we are poised to become stronger and thrive in the intensively competitive airline industry. This is the start of fleet enhancement as Serene Air would be adding two more A330s to its fleet in the next three to four months," Khan added.

While Serene Air's B737-800s are configured in single-class layouts, the A330-200 features 299 seats in a dual-class layout - with 275 economy class seats and 24 business class seats.

The airline became the second active Pakistani carrier operating passenger widebody jets after PIA - Pakistan International Airlines (PK, Islamabad Quaid-e-Azam Int'l).

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Photo: Umar Aziz

Islamabad International Airport (ISB/OPIS)
Pakistan - October 15, 2020