Fazal Jilani — Chairman, AirSial

The Man Behind the Institutions

Fazal Jilani has never built for himself. Every institution he has founded or led was conceived as a permanent asset for Sialkot — funded locally, governed locally, and designed to outlast any single leader.

Aviation Pioneer

Chairman, AirSial · 2016 — Present · Re-elected unanimously, March 2024

When Fazal Jilani proposed an airline owned and funded entirely by Sialkot's own exporters, most thought it impossible. Conceived in 2015 as an extension of the Sialkot International Airport project, AirSial secured its first aircraft leases with AerCap in 2019 and was inaugurated on 9 December 2020 — Pakistan's third private airline, its first scheduled flight (PF121) departing Karachi for Islamabad. Domestic routes came first; Jeddah, Madinah, Muscat, and Dubai followed as the fleet grew toward nine Airbus A320s.

Industrialist

CEO, Surgicon (Pvt) Ltd · Sialkot · Since 1986

Before aviation, Fazal Jilani built his standing in Sialkot's surgical instrument trade — a craft his family has practiced since 1908. Surgicon manufactures and exports stainless-steel surgical, dental, and veterinary instruments to international standards; his portfolio has also included STARMED Engineering and Hive International. That export-market credibility and manufacturing network gave him both the standing and the network to lead something larger.

Chamber President

Sialkot Chamber of Commerce & Industry · 2014 — 2015

As President of the SCCI, he used the platform not for ceremony but for action — specifically, to begin assembling the institutional and financial groundwork that would eventually become AirSial. His tenure at the Chamber was where the airline's vision moved from personal ambition to collective commitment.

Leadership & the AirSial Board

In March 2024, AirSial's board unanimously re-elected its leadership team — continued confidence in the people who took the airline from a local idea to an international carrier.

ChairmanFazal Jilani

Chief ExecutiveAmin Ahsan

Vice ChairmanQasir Briar

DirectorUmar Mir

Congratulated by SCCI President Abdul Ghafoor Malik and trade leaders Tahir Majeed Kapur, Muhammad Yousaf, and Jahangir Bajwa

Philanthropy & Community Welfare

Fazal Jilani draws no boundary between building a business and serving a community. As President of Anjuman-e-Mughalia Sialkot, he directs welfare institutions that offer what the market will not — free healthcare, funded education, and emergency support — not as charity drives but as permanent civic infrastructure.

Healthcare

Mughal General Hospital

A community hospital offering subsidised and, for the most vulnerable patients, free treatment — run as an institution rather than a one-time charitable gesture.

Education

Scholarship Program

Stipends and tuition support for promising students whose families could not otherwise carry the cost of their education.

Emergency Response

Disaster Relief

Coordinated relief and rehabilitation support for communities affected by floods and other natural disasters.

A Life's Work, in Order

Each milestone below is his decision, his initiative, his risk — not an organisation's press release.

2014–15

He leads Sialkot's Chamber

Elected President of the Sialkot Chamber of Commerce & Industry, he uses the role to think bigger — not just about trade policy, but about what infrastructure Sialkot's exporters genuinely lack.

2015–16

He conceives and launches AirSial

His idea — an airline funded entirely by local exporters, answerable to no government or foreign investor — is conceived in 2015 as an extension of the Sialkot International Airport project and formally registered in 2016. He becomes its founding Chairman and principal driver.

2019

He secures the aircraft

Negotiates and signs the lease agreement with AerCap for AirSial's first three Airbus A320s — a milestone that transforms the project from a vision on paper into an operational airline.

2020

He watches his city's airline take off

AirSial's inaugural flight departs Sialkot International Airport, inaugurated by the Prime Minister, making AirSial Pakistan's third private airline. Four years of conviction, persuasion, and institutional building made visible in a single departure.

2022

He grows the fleet

A second leasing agreement, with BOC Aviation, adds two more Airbus A320s to AirSial's growing operation.

2023

He takes Sialkot international

Under his chairmanship, AirSial opens routes to Jeddah, Madinah, and Muscat — directly connecting Sialkot's large overseas worker population to the cities they built their livelihoods around.

2023

He leads Anjuman-e-Mughalia

Assumes the Presidency of Anjuman-e-Mughalia Sialkot, committing his leadership to Mughal General Hospital, the scholarship program, and disaster relief — completing the picture of a man who builds both for commerce and for conscience.

2024

The board renews its confidence

AirSial's board unanimously re-elects Fazal Jilani as Chairman alongside CEO Amin Ahsan, Vice Chairman Qasir Briar, and Director Umar Mir, setting out an expanded vision for the airline's next phase.

2025

He adds Dubai to the route map

AirSial begins nine weekly flights to Dubai from Islamabad and Lahore, with a further two-aircraft lease from Dubai Aerospace Enterprise expanding the fleet again. The airline he envisioned a decade ago now connects Pakistan's exporter capital across the Gulf.