PIA does Bangkok six times a week

Amaad Lone · Post by **Amaad Lone** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 2:10 pm

Well finally.

Twice a week from Karachi PK886, PK878

Twice a week from Islamabad (one via Lahore) PK880 PK890

Thrice a week from Lahore PK884 PK890 PK882

That is six weekly A310-300 flights.

Thank god PIA is doing something to counter Thai.

But is it too late???

And Hong Kong from Islamabad is now non-stop, two weekly A310s.

behramjee · Post by **behramjee** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 2:21 pm

Its about time BKK was given serious thought by PIA.

But Im afraid that CX and TG will kill them out of KHI due to their greater frequencies + much better inflight product compared to PKs A 310s.

Out of LHE, TG will murder them as they have daily flights and a better all round product.

If PIA really wanted to be competitive, it should have been 4 weekly LHE-BKK nonstops + 3 weekly ISB-BKK nonstops only as out of KHI there is too much competition with EK-CX-TG-BG-UL compared to only TG in Northern Pakistan.

As for PIAÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢s Far East network, one cannot understand why PIA does not want to challenge Thai AirwayÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢s monopoly on the LHE-Bangkok (BKK) and now ISB-BKK nonstop sectors especially since on its BKK-LHE-BKK bound flights, Thai Airways has always made a hefty profit on + had a year round load factor of over 80%. PIA only flies to BKK from ISB via HKG which makes what should be a 5 hour nonstop flight into an eight and a half hour one. My advice for PIA is to fly 4 times a week ISB-LHE-BKK with A 310s and change the HKG-Hong Kong routing to 2 weekly ISB-LHE-HKG flights flown by an A 310.

Moin · Post by **Moin** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 7:26 pm

CX and TG may kill PIA on these routes, but PIA does have one lifeline left....... lower fares.

behramjee · Post by **behramjee** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 8:34 pm

actually PIA restarted KHI-BKK via LHE in summer 2003 with fares that were RS 7000 cheaper than CX and TG but still pax refused to fly them as their flight timings were vvv bad. Within 3-4 months these flights of theirs were suspended due to vvv poor revenues/loads/yields.

Remember if they have lower fares that doesnt neccessarily mean profits.

Also one big point to note that in Pakistan, THAI AIRWAYS's frequent flyer club alongwith CX's Asia Miles is vvv popular and has 100s of 1000s of Pakistani members who loyally fly TG & CX only on the KHI/LHE-BKK-LHE/KHI route due to the milage points. These ppl are involved in the DVD-VCD, garments, jewellery etc industry and fly twice a month to BKK and back.

Also one last thing, the Thai Consulates in LHE and KHI are very bias...if you have a group flying to Thailand, 90% of the time they refuse your visa applications if you arent flying TG. This was a big problem CX PAK office faced during the first 2-3 years of commercial operations into KHI.

PIA and Pakistani Consulate in MNL-Manila had the same policy when Filipinos wanted PAK visas in the 80s and 90s when PK flew their B 747s via BKK to MNL.

Lastly from KHI at least to BKK, lots of pax are going on all inclusive packaged tours to BKK which CX & TG provide at great value i.e. US $ 26-35 a night for 4-5 star hotels in BKK which PIA cant. Lastly, the biggest GROUPS travel agent to BKK from KHI is WELCOME TOURS...nearly all of their business now goes to CX (used to be TG) and they send groups of 10-40 pax per week on CX to BKK because of the high quality of CXs onboard service and the efficiency / good deals given to them by the current CX KHI Sales team.

Abbas Ali · Post by **Abbas Ali** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 6:48 am

PIA ad in today's (March 22, 2006) newspaper:

AirBlue · Post by **AirBlue** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 7:01 am

i that sunday one is a KHI-ISB-BKK

behramjee · Post by **behramjee** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 2:40 pm

Hi,

I have a feeling that the new PIA BKK flights will fail because of the hopeless way in which their schedules and frequencies are planned.

Firstly their schedules are :

KHI-BKK on SAT & SUN

SATURDAY PK 886 Dep KHI 1800 Arr BKK 0050 NONSTOP A 310

SUNDAY PK 878 Dep KHI 2220 Arr BKK 0510 NONSTOP A 310

BKK-KHI on MON & SUN

MONDAY PK 881 Dep BKK 1910 Arr KHI 2205 NONSTOP A 310

SUNDAY PK 887 Dep BKK 0205 Arr KHI 0500 NONSTOP A 310

*When you fly a medium haul route twice a week, basic route network planning logic dictates that it should be one weekday + one weekend service and definitely not BACK TO BACK service as is the case with the KHI-BKK-KHI flights which are on SAT-SUN outbound and SUN-MON inbound. The Sunday KHI-BKK flight is timed very well but look at the SAT flight which arrives into BKK at 1am which is very very inconvenient if youre a tourist or even a businessman!!! The Sunday flight KHI-BKK is excellent for interlining purposes and even both the returning flights are but the SUN KHI-BKK definitely isnt. Cathay Pacific and Thai Airways have a clear edge over PIA in this market segment.

ISB-BKK on MON & FRI

MONDAY PK 880 Dep ISB 1100 Arr BKK 1800 NONSTOP A 310

FRIDAY PK 890 Dep ISB 1450 Arr BKK 2340 Via LHE A 310

BKK-ISB on MON & SAT

MONDAY PK 879 Dep BKK 0610 Arr ISB 0910 NONSTOP A 310

SATURDAY PK 891 Dep BKK 0110 Arr ISB 0400 NONSTOP A 310

* Now who wants to arrive into BKK at 2340 in the night. Forget that, the FRI flight too ruins the chance for PK to interline with any Asian carrier to feed their flights with ISB pax bound for North Asia and U.S. West Coast flights. Secondly even the MON flight arrives in the evening meaning which the whole day is wasted flying as you have to arrive at ISB airport by 8am for your flight at 11am and then you arrive into BKK at 6pm and by the time you clear customs-immigration and check into your hotel its 9-10pm!!! Even the MON flight is bad for interline connections with Asian carriers except for Asiana! Lastly why would you fly PK ISB-BKK that too once a week via LHE when Thai Airways offers well timed, convenient 2 weekly nonstop flights on this route which is expected to go 3 weekly by winter 06-07.

LHE-BKK on TUES, WED & FRI

TUESDAY PK 882 Dep LHE 1655 Arr BKK 2340 NONSTOP A 310

WEDNESDAY PK 884 Dep LHE 0810 Arr BKK 1510 NONSTOP A 310

FRIDAY PK 890 Dep LHE 1640 Arr BKK 2340 NONSTOP A 310

BKK-LHE on WED (2 flights) & SAT

WEDNESAY PK 883 Dep BKK 0110 Arr LHE 0405 NONSTOP A 310

WEDNESDAY PK 885 Dep BKK 1650 Arr LHE 1950 NONSTOP A 310

SATURDAY PK 891 Dep BKK 0110 Arr LHE 0550 Via ISB A 310

*Now please explain the logic of flying a service 3 weekly when on one day of the week its a double frequency i.e. Wednesday for BKK-LHE on PK 883 and 885. How stupid is that!!! This is hopeless planning on the part of the route network planning dept of PIA. Its pretty obvious that even for the LHE-BKK-LHE flights, PIA isnt aiming for any interline traffic and is solely being reliant on O&D demand which isnt a good business move. Once again the LHE-BKK flights are timed at very awkwardly causing passengers to waste a whole day being in the plane or at the airport!!! The return flights though timed nicely lack variation in terms of days of service!!! Thai Airways will kill them on this route.

behramjee · Post by **behramjee** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 2:43 pm

Please look at how inefficient PIA is by examining their advertisement in today's newspaper.

Obviously no one in the company bothered to check carefully their flights before posting the advertisment as LHE-BKK is three times a week not ISB. On the ad, the opposite is mentioned saying ISB-BKK is thrice weekly when it isnt and that is proved on the PK website under flight schedules.

Such a big company doesnt make such simple careless mistakes especially when advertising a new service / product

pkjet · Post by **pkjet** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 5:25 pm

Proper marketing and a service minded route planning department are required asap !

sadiqhassan · Post by **sadiqhassan** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 6:00 pm

they really have outdone themselves... They MUST have had a reason to use such awkward scheduling though, no?

Cheers

behramjee · Post by **behramjee** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 3:46 pm

sadiqhassan wrote:they really have outdone themselves... They MUST have had a reason to use such awkward scheduling though, no?

Cheers

No reason can be justified for those 2 WED BKK-LHE flights especially!!!

behramjee · Post by **behramjee** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 3:56 pm

Ladies and Gentlemen...more nonsense to report

KHI now is 3 weekly to BKK with SUNDAY having 2 flights

and SAT one.

The extra flight is KHI-ISB-BKK

.

Check flight schedules page on www.piac.com.pk and you'll see for yourself.

inducedrag · Post by **inducedrag** » Fri Mar 24, 2006 9:22 am

BKK ISB PK 891 SATARDAY 25th Mar. first A310 flight cancelled due marketing as they could not get any passengers

behramjee · Post by **behramjee** » Fri Mar 24, 2006 12:24 pm

Amaad Lone · Post by **Amaad Lone** » Sat Apr 22, 2006 2:39 pm

The Bangkok flights are now down to three per week.

Twice from Lahore (non-stop) and once from Karachi.

Islamabad-Bangkok sector has been shut.

Poor marketing or simply the passengers prefer the modern inflight service of Thai A330s vs the cramped PIA A310-300s.

How are Thai fares compared to what PIA was offering????

Maybe PIA needs to operate the Bangkok flight as part of the Singapore or Kuala Lumpur flights.

For example:

Islamabad-Bangkok-Singapore-Bangkok-Islamabad
Islamabad-Bangkok-Kuala Lumpur-Bangkok-Islamabad
Karachi-Bangkok-Singapore-Bangkok-Karachi
Karachi-Bangkok-Kuala Lumpur-Bangkok-Karachi
Lahore-Bangkok-Singapore-Bangkok-Lahore
Lahore-Bangkok-Kuala Lumpur-Bangkok-Lahore

This way PIA can pull in some Lahore and Islamabad passengers who would otherwise use Thai to travel to Singapore or Kuala Lumpur.

Bangkok gets six weekly flights
Singapore gets three weekly flights
Kuala Lumpur gets three weekly flights

Plus try to get some extra traffic between Bangkok and KL and Singapore.