Pakistan International Airlines

[Aviador]

Thanks for your informative explanation into what was more likely to have happened.

 

[White Heather]

Thanks WYIA - really interesting. Someone had posted somewhere (can't remember which forum or wrote it) that if PIA suffered another major fuel leak, they were gone from LBA. Well he must have been wrong 'cos they are coming back tonight again.

As you say, the airport can't afford to lose this service so I hope they are doing all they can to accommodate the 777 as soon as possible, because it seems likely that the airline may possibly bring forward the retirement of the A310's from what I hear.

 

[White Heather]

At the Consultative Committee meeting today, it was cofirmed that PIA have announced that the A310 will definitely be replaced on the LBA/ISB route with the Boeing 777, although no dates given. The route continues to attract very high loadings and further expansion is a distinct possibility in the future.

 

[yorkshire]

hopefully daily but i cant see that... but you never know.

 

[Aviador]

Remember you heard it here on the UK Airport Forum first back in March !!!

I'm pretty sure now that PIA will be offering Dubai. I don't know if this will be the ISB flight operating via DXB or whether it will be a separate route altogether. PIA my decide that they want to test the 777 out on a shorter route first, that's not to say that it can't operate direct to Islamabad from LBA but it will offer them more flexibility with both weight and selling a new route from LBA.

 

[Aviador]

The pdf timetable on the the airport website is indicating that PIA flights are only operating on Wednesday and Saturday during the winter.

 

[eastcoaster]

I think that might be because of the increase to Boeing 777 in November, which seats about 316 pax in PIA config. This would stll give 632 seats against 543 with three A310s, so it will still be an increase.

 

[lbaspotter]

Hey that thing (Airport PDF Timetable) normally take a while before the airport get it right. If you check out the PIA website you will notice that the Islamabad routes is still showing been operated 3 times weekly throughout the winter.

 

[White Heather]

As LBAspotter states, the airport timetables are very late being updated. You will find in fact that the timetable for winter is a copy of last years winter timetable, with individual routes only being altered as and when the airline finally confirms their new schedules. The Airport are notoriously slow to do anything with it, and they acknowledge themselves that the whole web site is past its best and state they are working on a brand new one.

 

[Aviador]

I agree that they are always slow at updating the site for whatever reason, but the pdf was dated June which was my main concern because that would indicate that it is up to date.

 

[White Heather]

Well lets hope that if it does turn out to be twice weekly again for the winter, it is on the 777.

 

[Aviador]

Well lets hope that if it does turn out to be twice weekly again for the winter, it is on the 777.

Well according to someone on the Dried Plum forum, PIA are to start using the Boeing 777 in October. I don't know how reliable the source is though.

The passenger numbers on the service have dropped off at the moment. It is apparently too hot in Pakistan at the moment which puts people off from travelling there. (Mon 37°C | Tue 36°C | Wed 39°C |Thu 39°C ) I think I can understand that theory. :shok:

 

[lbaspotter]

Well lets hope that if it does turn out to be twice weekly again for the winter, it is on the 777.

Well according to someone on the Dried Plum forum, PIA are to start using the Boeing 777 in October. I don't know how reliable the source is though.

The passenger numbers on the service have dropped off at the moment. It is apparently too hot in Pakistan at the moment which puts people off from travelling there. (Mon 37°C | Tue 36°C | Wed 39°C |Thu 39°C ) I think I can understand that theory. :shok:

And the same person posted on pprune that Thomas Cook are going to use a Airbus A310 on there new weekly winter sharm el sheikh. Since when did TCX have A310's? It was well known that an NCL based B757 will be doing the route.

He goes on to Mention that he found the info on the LBA website PDF timetable we know how wrong that can be.

Also like i said earlier on here, if you look at the PIA website all flights from LBA to ISB are now bookable upto Christmas and they show that they will continue to be operated by the A310's not B777's.

 

[Bigman]

I did hear than one went out with only 45 on last week. AP-BEG didn't look full when that went of 32 last night either.

 

[White Heather]

Well if the drop off is weather related, then presumably this is something that happens on all PIA routes, not just from LBA to ISB?

We can ignore the comment about TCX A310's then as the LBA timetable only states the aircraft type for each airline in the key at the bottom and it is very often completely wrong. I wouldn't believe anything it says frankly. It is still showing routes operating in winter that have already been axed!

 

[Bigman]

Maybe it meant to say A330 instead of A310. Oh god, there's that flying pig again!!!

 

[White Heather]

Just checked - the airport timetable shows the aircraft to be operated by PIA as an A310-300.

The twice weekly schedule is in blue on the winter timetable, meaning it is not confirmed, and it is still showing last winters times, so it cannot be trusted.

 

[Aviador]

...and of course, last winter they didn't operate on a Monday anyway. From past experience with PIA, they do seem to announce things late in the day so I wouldn't be at all surprised if today they announced that they are to bring in the Boeing 777 next week.

That was just hypothetical of course, not a rumour!

 

[Aviador]

Still no more news about when we might see the Boeing 777 come to Leeds. It's all gone very quiet. I understand last nights service departed with almost a full load, so the passenger numbers seem to be picking up again on the route.

 

[backtrack]

Apparently, according to some of the PIA crew, the weather is very humid and temp very high at the moment above 30 degrees in some parts of ISB. Maybe this is having an effect? I believe on the saturday previous flight, there were a final pax figure of 197, compared with the recent <100's.