AirBlue to Get Two Airbus A340-300s on Lease from ILFC

[Amaad Lone]

A daily Karachi-Istanbul-Karachi flight, and cheaper fares then Emirates, Etihad, Qatar, and Oman Air, providing good connections to Europe, North America and U.K could really bring passengers to Air Blue from the Gulf airlines.

Should have introduced the A340-300s in May this, ready to cover the summer peak season.

Why did Air Blue miss the peak summer season with the wide bodies??

[Moin]

Amaad, they're getting 3 more planes, including 2 A340's which was something unthinkable earlier this year so lets just be happy that they're coming now rather than never.

[Umair]

This is the way forward for Airblue. They could operate a daily service into Manchester out of Pakistan(Islamabad & Lahore), which means no stopover at Istanbul. A twice weekly flight to Jeddah from Lahore & Karachi. A twice weekly flight to Kuala Lumpur from Peshawar, because I think that is one great route since 80% of PIA's Load into KUL is made up of workers from the KP province, thus this route is ideal for airblue. Bangkok could be another possibility as they could use an A319 into BKK after they place there A343's on ISB-MAN-ISB route. Though the future of Istanbul seems to be uncertain?

[hasan saleem]

The prospecting routes that airblue can look into is Colombo, Dhaka on a A320/319.

[Abbas Ali]

Depending on Air Services Agreement between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, AirBlue should also try to start flights between Pakistan and Jeddah with A340 during peak Umrah season particularly in Ramadan and also during Hajj.

During low season, A320 can be deployed for flights between Jeddah and Pakistan.

Abbas

[mac777]

r the turboprops also coming?maybe a seperate deal.
now they'll have to fill 300 seats per flight.
they could have introduced economy plus.
i guess they will use it at least for a daily flight from khi to lhe or isb.
their freed a320 can be used for a variety of other routes-domestic like multan,quetta and international like dhaka,colombo and ksa.
a code share or feeder service will be more beneficial

[riz]

320- 319s for KHI-SIN , KHI-HKG.<Except Cathay) No competition.

[ahsan22]

Why there is no rumour about operating a flight to London. Everybody is talking about SA, Manchester, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore etc. In the absence of BA and only PIA operating direct flight I think airblue should also focus on London which is probably guaranteed to be good in terms of load, am I right?.

[hasan saleem]

They would be unable to get the slots at Heathrow.

[ahsan22]

What about Gatwick, Stansted and Luton. Even PIA operated flights from Stansted for a short period of time. I am sure these three airports will be happy to take airblue as they all have different owners now and they are competing each other for customers.

[hasan saleem]

Very stiff competition from Emirates / Qatar/ Oman, why would someone fly airblue when they have a better product in Emirates / Qatar/ Oman. In fact PIA having a direct flight into Heathrow are unable to sustain then how can you expect Airblue to succeed, Shaheen in fact started UK and did miserably bad.

[Adnan Anwar]

Maybe THY and Air Blue are going into a partnership like they had planned for PIA.

Bring in passengers from Pakistan for Europe, UK and North America.

Two A340-300s operating twice daily flights into Istanbul from Lahore, and Islamabad.

If this goes through PIA is screwed big time.

AirBlue can really establish itself as a regional carrier with this alliance than expand to other farther destinations. PIA would be the loser once AirBlue establishes itself.

[Hamad]

Maybe THY and Air Blue are going into a partnership like they had planned for PIA.

Bring in passengers from Pakistan for Europe, UK and North America.

Two A340-300s operating twice daily flights into Istanbul from Lahore, and Islamabad.

If this goes through PIA is screwed big time.

AirBlue can really establish itself as a regional carrier with this alliance than expand to other farther destinations. PIA would be the loser once AirBlue establishes itself.

I agree - if AirBlue would get this opportunity they should take the chance!

[Shereen]

Further details of mentioned a/c from ILFC

Airbus A340-313X first delivered to Air Canada 14/05/98 last operators Air Jamaica and Turkish Airlines TC-JIJ 'Selcuk'
Airbus A340-313X first delivered to Air Canada 11/02/99 last operators Air Jamaica and Turkish Airlines TC-JIK 'Pamukkale'

[Hamad]

Thanks for the Informations.
According to that I expect that Airblue wont have PTV Screens as TY also doesnt have it onboard those AC.
See here:

TC-JIJ


TC-JIK


TC-JIJ in white ready for Airblue livery