Pakistan International Airlines

[Jordan-34092]

If people fly from Manchester I tell you this now they will either use emirates or ethiad via UAE or use Air Blue. the airline, PÍA, is bad enough as it is and the only thing they have going over the competition for this area is the fact they operate flights from the local airport direct.

 

[LUFC Jonno]

I agree and I believe that if the airport had a long haul link to Doha or Dubai for example then PIA may be concerned. Lets not forget that they pulled out of Glasgow because people preferred to fly with Emirates instead of PIA.

 

[Jordan-34092]

PIA have changed the departure time of the PIA776, it was 1900 hours but now has been brought forward to 1815 hours, the arrival of PIA775 is still the same as before which is 1630 hours.

PIA change there flight times more than the bloody weather changes!!

 

[LBA787]

I have been informed wednesdays PK775/6 has been cancelled due to low bookings. The figures have dropped considerably since Airblue started direct services from MAN to ISB. I wouldn't at all be surprised if the route is closed before the summer! 

:crazy:

 

[Jordan-34092]

Bye Pia

 

[jason1-11]

[offtopic]My money would be on Bristol. When Air SouthWest had the route we regularly used to get 3000+ per month with decent fares and a decent schedule. Now look at it.[/offtopic]

 

[lbaspotter]

Oh hear we go again the rumours that PIA maybe looking to axe the Leeds route!

But it maybe that the real reason for the Leeds-Islamabad flight been cancelled tomorrow is due to the fact that (PIA) Pakistan International Airlines has grounded 16x of its 38x aircraft due to lack of spare parts. It terminated a contract with a gulf based company this past weekend. In doing so it has ended up leaving loads of pax stranded in Pakistan.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/article-85107-PIA-grounds-16-aircraft

KARACHI: The Pakistan International Airlines terminated an agreement signed with a foreign company for the procurement of spare parts to keep its aircraft operational, Geo News reported Thursday.

Source said the decision to cancel the contract was taken at a meeting of board of directors since the company had failed in providing required spare parts on time, which forced the national airline to ground its 16 aircraft out of 38 in its fleet.

The sources said that the PIA now had only 22 airplanes functional in its fleet, an alarming number which might inflict more financial losses to the already crisis-stricken PIA.

They said that former MD Nadeem Yousufzai and ex- DMD had entered an agreement with the foreign company for procurement of spare parts.
The sources, however, said board of directors had not ordered any action against any officer responsible for signing the agreement.

Sources said that prior to the said agreement, 400 companies were providing the PIA with equipments. In an unprecedented move, the authorities in PIA tasked only a single company from Dubai with providing the parts, canceling all the contacts with other hundreds of firms.

The sources revealed that the PIA became the first commercial airline in the globe to enter an agreement with the company, which had no earlier experience in the field.

The PIA contacted with the 400 companies but they seemed reluctant to work with the airline, they added.

 

[Jordan-34092]

And The majority I bet will be A310s and 737s. The airline will be using the remaining A310s to cover the 737s and there own operations and they will cancel certain routes, particular the routes that dont earn them as much money as to be fair I cant see them cancelling there main money earning routes. Having looked on flight radar a few times I have seen 777s carrying out A310s work such as I seen them operating on the ISB to AMS route aswell as short routes to places like Dubai. I can see the route being canned before august at this rate. If it does lets hope Shaheen take the route back up. now that they own a fleet of A330s it would be a good idea. A possibility could be ISB to LBA to Toronto (don't know the airport three letter code) with the possibility of leeds to Karachi as this would be another nice little earner. Also regards to air blue I have spoke to people in the asian community and a lot have said The service is much better with Air Blue than PÍA and now with the A340 direct it only gets better for them. Also I spoke to the travel agent near my work and he said most of his customers now request Air Blue over PÍA for not only the reason above but they tend to be cheaper with certain flights.

 

[LBA787]

Good point lbaspotter.

PIA e-mailed us as per usual yesterday with an updated pax figure of J 0 Y 20. These are just unreal figures I cannot imagine how much money the route is bleeding at the moment.

I don't want to loose the only regular scheduled long haul flight operating into LBA but I just cannot see it being viable with these hideous loads. Their A310's are shot and with no direct replacement coming i.e 767/A330 the only longhaul a/c PIA will have to operate the route will be a 772! As much as everyone on this forum would love to see that it really isn't going to happen.

Hope I'm wrong, passenger loads improve and we keep the service...

:crazy:

 

[White Heather]

The airline seem to be in a real mess. As someone who works in Procurement, I cannot believe that they put all their supply chain in one basket - presumably they got a great deal, but really, it is a cardinal sin in the world of procurement and now they know why!

Knowing LBA, I would be surprised if they are not already planning ahead for the possibility of losing the route. They obviously know what the passenger loads are like, and how thing are looking for the future, so you would hope that if we ever did lose the route, they may be able to secure something to replace it fairly quickly.

 

[Jordan-34092]

Knowing LBA, I would be surprised if they are not already planning ahead for the possibility of losing the route. They obviously know what the passenger loads are like, and how thing are looking for the future, so you would hope that if we ever did lose the route, they may be able to secure something to replace it fairly quickly.

I think more than likely it will be dropped by August at this rate. If they do like i suggested Shaheen would be a good replacement as they now own a small fleet of A330's.

 

[lbaspotter]

Things just get worse for PIA. As Pakistan State Oil (PSO) has reduced jet fuel supply to all PIA aircraft due to non-payment or delayed payment of bills by the airline.

 

[Aviador]

Things just get worse for PIA. As Pakistan State Oil (PSO) has reduced jet fuel supply to all PIA aircraft due to non-payment or delayed payment of bills by the airline.

PIA is a state controlled airline, so it's strange that the state controlled oil company has reduced their fuel supply to the state owned airline?

 

[Jordan-34092]

what else is intriguing is that the officers and directors of the airline have been using the airline as a personal cheuffer, diverting scheduled flights to drop off and pick themselves and family up.

 

[White Heather]

Well the PIA775 is operating today and expected at 1800, so late. Better late than never and obviously the airline has some fuel and an available aircraft, which AP-BEC - currently a few miles South East of Vilnius

 

[EX9]

Only one seat spare in economy tonight also.

 

[dmrodgers]

Only one seat spare in economy tonight also.

Some good news for once for the route. Lets hope that numbers hold up in the future and our one true International scheduled service prospers, that elusive triple seven may yet make an appearance at LBA

 

[White Heather]

It is an intriguing situation. I feel sure that if PIA switched over to a 777-200, the general perception about the route would be more positive and bookings would increase at LBA - perhaps giving Air Blue a run for their money over at MAN. First, you can't help but think that the airline has got to get its act together. One thing is sure - it cannot continue to operate with so many problems. They simply have to sort it out, and soon, as they appear to be in a downward spriral.

Excellent news that the economy class was more or less full last night, although you do wonder how many of those were originally due to fly out on last Wednesday's cancelled flight?

 

[User0001]

I feel sure that if PIA switched over to a 777-200, the general perception about the route would be more positive and bookings would increase at LBA - perhaps giving Air Blue a run for their money over at MAN

Judging by the words of some who use UK-Pakistan flights, PIA are going to have to do a lot more than put a B777 on the LBA route to take on Air Blue.

They are building a great reputation with the A340, and are even pulling in passengers from London and Birmingham.

It is not just LBA-ISB suffering, but MAN/BHX and LHR all having a few light loads.

Even got to the stage now that PIA are pulling the MAN transit flights, switching them to Shannon this summer, so looking like a shrinking market overall for PIA.

 

[LBAYORKIE]

Has anyone heard that PIA are operating 777's from 13th March onwards?


LbaYorkie