High Freq. Small Aircraft Versus Low Freq. Large Aircraft

[Amaad Lone]

Airlines through out the world debate on the following issue.

Boeing skipped the Ultra Large Aircraft market, and went from city to city traveling, thus designing the long range 200-300 seaters. Beliving people want to travel out of a major city closest to them, and the 787 was born.

Airbus went the other direction, designed the A380 and suggested hub to hub travel, carrying 600 passengers in 3 class layout.

I think PIA has opted for the large aircraft low frequency, thus opting for the 400 seat 747 30 years ago, operating it to certain cities a lousy twice a week.

That was a different era. An era when Lufthansa flew from Hong Kong to Frankfurt via Bangkok-Karachi-Athens using a DC-10-30. I flew on that flight in the summer of 1979.

Travelers are now looking for fluid travel plans, the ability to fly on any day of the week, any week of the month, any month of the year.

Emirates has always followed the policy of smaller aircraft, but go daily, give people choices and options on the day to travel. They went from daily A310-300 to A330-200 to 777-300ER.

PIA today is living with a reality of three major hubs, Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad. Gone are the days where people from Northern Pakistan wished to travel to Karachi to fly international. PIA read this well and has introduced number of direct international flights from Islamabad and Lahore, and more recently Peshawar.

But I still fail to understand one point. The need for a 400 seater in the PIA network.

The only destination that gets a daily jumbo from a particular city is Jeddah from Karachi. London gets 10 weekly 747 flights, but are split between the three hubs.

Would it not be better if PIA offered 15 weekly 777-200ER flights into London versus the 10 747s. A twice daily flight to London from the three hubs, now that would be a great marketing tool.

A move none of the Arab airlines would be able to counter. Yes we hear of the slot game at Heathrow, but then how are Indian airlines expanding into UK airports.

I feel the need for a 400 seater would eliminate should PIA break up the traffic of the three hubs, and concentrate on maximizing frequency to each destination from each hub.

I would say the 320 seat 777-200ER would be the largest aircraft PIA would need, with a large number of 200 seaters in the fleet.

The traveler has to be given the maximum choice, and gone are the days when airlines could make money flying to a destination twice a week.

Today PIA is facing stiff competition from Emirates and Qatar Airways, both airlines built thier companies on policy of good service and excellent schedules. PIA must do the same, or face complete shut down after open skies come to Lahore and Islamabad.

[ord]

You make some valid points. I think PIA do need to cut the number of European destinations and expand service from 3-4 main points and some secondary U.K. markets.

It should be LHR, CDG, FRA, OSL and secondary U.K. markets like MAN, BHX, GLA that can support more than 2x weekly operation.

All destinations need to be served 3x weekly or axed.

But, I do think there is a role for the 747/773ER in PIA's fleet:

-Many EU airports have slot issues.

-The marginal revenue PIA gets for having extra capacity in the summer is probably greater than the marginal cost of having those seats, on routes such as LHR, MAN, RUH, etc.

-If PIA do expand services to CDG and FRA using smaller aircraft and continue to operate a fairly heavy schedual to places like BHX and MAN, they can better market routes such as LHR and MAN to 6th freedom traffic, where they can leverage the combination of high capacity with high frequency.

[Kashif]

I think one other issue for PIA is that CAA charges in Pakistan are very high. So it is for them cheaper to have for example 2x weekly B777 or B747 than 4x A310 or Daily 737 to lets say for example bangkok.

[PK777]

I think PIA dont have the rights to fly more than 10 flights into London hence, the jumbos are used. The B777 would most probably be the ideal replacement for the aging B743s in the future on most routes.

Another thing about the B747s is PIA fly the aircraft from KHI - LHE where the seats are not all filled, hence, losses occur. If there is an international flight from LHE on many occassions I have seen jumbos perform domestic flights e.g. KHI/ISB - LHE then the B747 is put on the intl flight.