Pak private airlines seek deals with foreign carriers

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piafan
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Pak private airlines seek deals with foreign carriers

Post by piafan »

Pak airlines seek deals with foreign carriers

By our correspondent

KARACHI: Private airlines have started negotiations with the international carriers to grab business following deregulation of international routes by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).

Foreign airlines, which were operating in Pakistan and have now closed their businesses, are the main target of private airlines.

Airblue - the youngest airline in the country has made agreements with major European operators and Far Eastern airlines, sources in the aviation industry revealed.

Airblue is taking off for Dubai on the Independence Day. Following the permission granted by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) for the international routes, it will be the first flight of the Airblue to any destination outside the Pakistan.

Initially Airblue will operate a daily flight from Karachi to Dubai and after two week, frequency will be doubled from Karachi while new flight schedules would be added from Lahore, Islamabad and Peshawar.

Passengers intending to continue on Swiss Airways, Lufthansa, British Airways or Cathay Pacific from Dubai will get the facility from Airblue. According to the agreements signed by the Airblue with these airlines, the passenger could get e-ticket of these airlines from the Airblue outlets and baggage will be automatically shifted to the aircraft of these airlines from Dubai.

The arrangements by the private airlines especially Airblue will give a new dimension to aviation industry in Pakistan, experts said. It will help break the monopoly of Gulf carriers in the country, they added.

The CAA has deregulated the international routes recently and allowed all the private airlines to fly for all the destinations.

Following the deregulation of the international routes, the Airblue signed an agreement for the procurement of 10 aircraft from Airbus, the biggest deal in terms of numbers of aircraft by any airline of the country.

For the time being, the Airblue has made arrangement with Ukrainian Airline. This aircraft will be operated for Ukraine in day and for Airblue in night.

Source: The News
Moin
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Post by Moin »

The a/c ED is leasing for the DXB flights is a 737. I paid a visit to my friend in ED at JIAP today and thats what she told me. I was a bit surprised as I would have thought that for at least the inaugural flight, they would send one of their own a/c. It'll look a little odd flying ED to DXB in an Air Ukraine 737.

As usual she was upto her neck in work and in the 1 hr I spend with her, she actually spoke to me properly for only 10 mins. She was running all over the place, getting things ready for tomorrows inaugural flight, sorting out cabin crew rosters, attending to letters from cabin crew who requested a few days leave. Their policy is 24 hrs rest in one week.

She also had to inspect new seat headrest covers, pillow cases and blanket samples that were brought to her. The headrest covers were in dark blue with AirBlue stiched to the bottom right hand corner and the website address across the back of the velcro strip, which when applied, will face the passenger sitting in the rear. The other color was grey with AirBlue stitched in dark blue. Same color combinations were for the pillow cases. She specified everything in dark blue for C class and a mix of dark blue and grey for Y. I suggested to her a nice color for the blankets would be in dark blue with small light grey crescents (as on their a/c tails) and/or light grey blankets with dark blue crescents. She took notes. She found whatever faults she could with the samples and told the supplier (also present) that she would check them out on an incoming flight from PEW after the a/c disembarks to see how they look when put in place on the seats and get back to him as to what changes he needed to make. I suggested to her to go and try them out on their 3rd a/c which was parked and not in use and she said it was parked too far away and she'll just wait for the PEW flight to land.

I gave her a copy of an article I read in an aviation magazine about the benefits of a fast turnaround which was focused on Southwest Airlines and she said that was what they were trying to achieve, but in a fast turnaround in Pakistan is not always easy as you had to deal with fussy pax wanting their seats changed, water supply, late pax etc. I also gave her CV's of 2 people I know who'd like a job with ED.

Another interesting thing I observed (which I forgot to ask her about) was that last night at around 3am, after I got home, I heard a plane flying overhead, so I grabbed my binoculars and looked up and saw that it was an ED A320 flying west towards the Arabian Sea. All a/c that fly over my house are westbound towards the middle east or Europe and this a/c was going in that direction. The light reflecting on the tail immediately identified it as ED, but why was it flying west is beyond me.
Moin Abbasi
CoyBoy
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Post by CoyBoy »

The 737 bit is a shocker, will it be in ED colours?
GrandSlam
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Post by GrandSlam »

Mr.Moin At night most of the domestic flights also turn Left after T/O,They continue wid a left turn and once they come over head the Airport they set course for their destination,The name of this deparure procedure is Badil2Bravo and they execute it mostly at night to avoid Gulistan-E-Johar at night(Because of The Noise).
Moin
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Post by Moin »

The route you're describing I know about. They make a left turn and go all the way round heading up north. This a/c was headed westwards, straight toward the sea. I've lived in KDA Scheme 1 for 33 years and know pretty much in which direction a/c flying overhead go to.

One thing did strike me strange is that she told me that they cancelled 2 flights on that very day I saw this a/c fly overhead, being the 12th of Aug, but she didn't tell me why but it wasn't technical. Then that same night at 3am this a/c flew out. Something funny is going on.
Moin Abbasi
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Post by behramjee »

from Air Ukraine, has ED leased a B 733 or B 734? I hope its a B 734!!!

Also as far as EDs return flight goes departing 0030 from DXB, it enables it connect with the arrivals of :

LX 2040 dxb arrival
LH 2120 dxb arrival
BA 2230 dxb arrival
KL 2300 dxb arrival
CX 2040 dxb arrival

I dont understand why they should have or why CX should want a SPA with them when CX themselves fly to KHI 3 times per week!!!
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Post by Abbas Ali »

behramjee wrote:from Air Ukraine, has ED leased a B 733 or B 734? I hope its a B 734!!!
As far as I know it's a 737-400. AirBlue's Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Shahid Khaqan Abbasi mentioned wet lease of a Boeing 737-400 in a newpaper interview (Khaleej Times? - I don't remember exactly) some weeks ago.
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hajafri
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Post by hajafri »

Ramiz they have already kicked out 5 airlines from pakistan and in the process of kicking out the turkish airline i cant understand why they are doing all this? are they owner of pakistani aviation industry? capable of fighting and earning money with all other airlines ASF, are they FULL BADMASH of Pakistan?
behramjee
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Post by behramjee »

As far as I know it's a 737-400. AirBlue's Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Shahid Khaqan Abbasi mentioned wet lease of a Boeing 737-400 in a newpaper interview (Khaleej Times? - I don't remember exactly) some weeks ago.
Thank you for clearing this query of mine...appreciate it :)
in the process of kicking out the turkish airline i cant understand why they are doing all this?
And who told you this or makes you assume this? Considering that TK just recently increased KHI to 4 weekly B 738s and will soon be in a codesharing agreement with PIA...so whats the deal here with your statement of CAA wanting TK out.
CoyBoy
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Post by CoyBoy »

Article in todays Dawn says its an A320 that will fly the route http://www.dawn.com/2005/08/14/local13.htm
hajafri
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Post by hajafri »

I would be happy to clarify it but please introduce yourself to me i will be greatful to you
As i Said before that PIA want to kick out TK from Pakistan not the whole
PIA is involved there are a few officails of them and CAA has no objection in this regards they have never tried to kickout any airline from Pakistan.