Exhibit A: National Aviation Policy 2019 — a bespoke unlock
Under Imran Khan, Pakistan promulgated the National Aviation Policy 2019. AirSial’s chairman publicly credited this policy as decisive for startups:
“We are grateful to the Prime Minister for piloting and promulgating the National Aviation Policy 2019, without which any startup airline would have found it extremely difficult to enter Pakistan’s aviation sector.”
Why this matters:
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The policy lengthened license validity, eased certification timelines, and rationalized entry barriers.
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These changes arrived precisely when AirSial was stalled under the old one-year renewal regime.
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The benefits were disproportionately immediate for AirSial compared with carriers already grounded by prior enforcement.
Policy reform is legitimate. Timing and beneficiary concentration are what elevate this from neutral reform to extraordinary facilitation.
