Shaheen Air International (SAI) on Thursday claimed that the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) was not allowing the airline to carry out its international operations despite court's orders. However, the CAA denied SAI's claims, accusing the airline of "misinterpreting the orders of the honourable court".

The airline accused the authority of stopping its flights to Muscat and Canton from Lahore airport. It argued that the Sindh High Court has already suspended the CAA order which called for a partial suspension of its flight operations.

It is pertinent to mention that CAA had suspended international flight operations of SAI from Monday, except to and from Saudi Arabia, owing to non-payment of dues of over Rs1.5 billion.

The airline in its statement claims that "despite order of the court, the CAA issued a letter on July 19, 2018, from its airport manager at Lahore saying that international flights of Shaheen Air are still stopped."

Responding to the recent allegations made by the airline, CAA spokesperson Pervez George said, "It is regrettable that SAI instead of honouring its promise to make the payment owed to CAA, as per the schedule it provided itself, is misinterpreting the orders issued by the court."

"Furthermore, they are willfully trying to mislead the travellers and the general public," George added.

Earlier on Tuesday, the CAA spokesperson had said that owing to non-payment of dues, services and facilities to the airline’s international flights only, except Saudi Arabia, were suspended with effect from July 16, 2018.

He had said that for the above suspension a prior notice had been served on the Shaheen Air and its announcements were also made through the media well before time to help passengers avoid any inconvenience.