The Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (PCAA) has suspended the air operator's certificate (AOC) of Serene Air (ER, Islamabad International) three days after the airline's last active aircraft became unserviceable. Despite having no active aircraft, the airline said the grounding was just a "short-term pause".
"Serene Air has failed to comply with the regulatory requirement of maintaining the prescribed minimum fleet size, and presently has zero serviceable aircraft available for operations, thereby rendering it incapable of sustaining the operational capacity required to conduct safe air operations," the regulator said in a circular on October 2, 2025.
The CAA ordered the privately owned airline to temporarily surrender both of its AOCs, AOC-031/16-AL and AOC-032/17-CH, until it can demonstrate the capacity to adhere to the minimum fleet size requirements.
"Our flight operations are temporarily suspended due to unforeseen circumstances. This is a short-term pause, and our team is working diligently with authorities to ensure a swift return to service," the carrier said in a statement.
ch-aviation analysis shows that the airline has been grounded since September 29, 2025, when its last active aircraft, A330-200 AP-BNF (msn 819), flew from Karachi International to Jeddah International. It has not left the Saudi airport since then. Another A330-200, AP-BNG (msn 900), has been grounded since September 27, and the airline's last active B737-800, AP-BNA (msn 61352), operated its last revenue flight on September 26 and was subsequently ferried to Tianjin, presumably for maintenance. One more A330-200 and two B737-800s have been in long-term storage since 2023-2024, ch-aviation data shows.
The airline did not respond to ch-aviation's request for comment.
