CAA To Upgrade Multan International Airport

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CAA To Upgrade Multan International Airport

Post by Abbas Ali »

Multan Airport Runway Repair To Cost Rs 720m

MULTAN, Sept 12 (APP)
Multan Airport runway is being repaired at a cost of Rs 720 million, said airport manager Syed Aamir Mahboob Gillani here Monday.

Talking to APP he said the work started about a month and half ago is likely to be completed in about two weeks' time. The work includes necessary rehabilitation like re-carpeting for smooth operation of flights.

Responding to a question about the airport expansion project costing Rs 1.7 billion, he said a three-member board has been constituted on the directive of President Musharraf to sort out the issue, which will comprise one member each from the Civil Aviation Authority, Ministry of Defence and Corps Headquarters Multan.

He said the board is likely to meet within a month to discuss the airport expansion project.

It is pertinent to mention that the President had announced to expand the existing Multan airport facility so that wide-bodied aircraft could land and take off for direct international passenger and cargo flights.

Source: Associated Press of Pakistan
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CAA To Upgrade Multan Airport

Post by Abbas Ali »

CAA to spend Rs 4.5bn for Multan Airport upgradation

KARACHI:
The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has earmarked Rs 4.5 billion for the development of Multan International Airport (MIA), aiming to attain international status through this upgradation project.

Director General CAA, Farooq Rehmatullah said this while addressing a press conference here on Wednesday. Out of total allocated budget, CAA will expend Rs 3.5 billion from its Annual Development Programme (ADP) budget whereas the government of Pakistan would finance the remaining one billion rupees.

Highlighting recent developments on the ongoing upgradation process, the DG CAA said that the development projects are presently being made to facilitate all domestic and international passengers at the Multan airport. He elaborated that the project encompasses two important phases, i.e. expansion of the terminal building (phase – I) and upgradation of the airside facilities (Phase – II). Moreover, it was also mentioned that 43 acres of land has been acquired for the terminal building, is being given free of cost by the Pakistan Army to CAA whereas the Pakistan Air Force has also allowed the extension of runway on its land.

Regarding the completion time of the project, Farooq Rahmatullah said that following the tender documentation which is expected to be completed by January 2008, airside work for the airport project is expected to commence from April 2008 with an expected completion time of 36 months.

Source: Daily Times

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TAC777
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Post by TAC777 »

Long long overdue! They should have done it long time back. One of the most important airports of Pakistan and neglected for so long.
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Post by Imran Hassan »

I think in addition to Multan, Faisalabad, Peshawar and Quetta also need alot of additional work.
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Post by asif238 »

Intitialy When SIAL announced that with Rs. 2 Billion they will build an International Airport with the longest runway in Pakistan, my first reaction was that its an exaggeration.
But now since its a reality no more fiction, when I read the upgradation cost of Multan Airport to be Rs. 4.5 Bllion, I got mad that how ruthlessly our money(tax-payers) is used. Shame on these leeches, blood-suckers :evil: .

Many many more salutes to the community of Sialkot particularly its busniness community who's doing all the infrastructure developments say its Dryport, roads or even an airport.
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Post by Abbas Ali »

^ I don't think Rs. two billion is the final and total cost of Sialkot Airport construction. The airport is still under-construction according to various reports. The terminal building for international flights and related infrastructure like access roads are incomplete. Due to these reasons international airlines still haven't begun operations for Sialkot and, also, so far, PIA is the only Pakistani airline flying to Sialkot with twice a week service from Karachi. Shaheen and AirBlue still haven't started flights for Sialkot.

I'm sure final cost of Sialkot Airport construction will be higher than Rs. two billion. But by having said that, one is not taking any credit away from Sialkot's business community who worked hard to build the airport and fully deserve appreciation.

Also, while making comparison between construction cost of various airports one should also keep in mind difference between their size and standard of construction.

As far as Multan Airport airport expansion and upgrdation is concerned, it was long overdue as already stated by forum member TAC777. It's an established airport served daily by various PIA flights connecting Multan with non-stop flights to Karachi, Faisalabad, Lahore and international non-stop flight to Dubai.

I think main phases of Multan Airport upgradation project i.e. expansion of airport terminal building, upgradation of air-side facilities and also extension of runway, all these phases together are very much close to building a new airport. That's why we see high cost for this project.

As Pakistanis, we should feel happy to see development and upgradation of airports in all parts of country whether it's in Quetta, Peshawar, Hyderabad, Sialkot or Multan.
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Post by Abbas Ali »

PIA Multan Earns Over Rs 1bn In 2007

MULTAN:
PIA Multan earned more than Rs one billion during 2007, said District Manager Bashiruddin here on Friday. Talking to APP he said this became possible only due to team efforts of the entire station staff. He said all eight Fokker planes have been replaced with new seven French ATR aircrafts that are more comfortable and safe. He said it was a matter of utmost satisfaction for the whole nation that the European Union had lifted all its restrictions on PIA flights because the latter had upgraded its aircraft and airbuses befitting their high requisite standard.

Bashiruddin said when he took charge of this office in 2004 the Multan station’s annual revenue stood at Rs 636 million, which had now risen to Rs 1.09 billion. He said at the moment the PIA was operating two flights a week for Dubai and from February 3 the number would rise to three. He said it was a prized route, which had a greater potential for PIA.

The district manager PIA said that the Multan station now surpassed Peshawar, Quetta and Faisalabad in terms of revenue. He said international, domestic and cargo services would further improve if the Multan Airport expansion plan is implemented. He said apart from ATR planes seven new Boeing 777 aircrafts had been inducted into the PIA fleet increasing its strength to 38. Bashiruddin said after expansion of the airport, mango and other fresh fruit export could increase manifold, earning robust forex for the exchequer.

To a question the DM said after the envisaged expansion wide-bodied aircraft would be able to land at and take off from Multan. He said direct flights from Multan to Jeddah for Hajj and Umrah pilgrims would generate more revenue besides facilitating a comfortable journey to the people of this region. The District Manager PIA said a lot of business activity would take place and new vistas of job opportunities would be opened up in case the Multan Airport is upgraded and turned into an international facility.

Source: Daily Times
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Post by PK777 »

Didnt realise that Multan was doing that well. Maybe PIA could look into it as the next international hub? How large of an aircraft can the airport handle at the moment?
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Post by Abbas Ali »

PK777 wrote:How large of an aircraft can the airport handle at the moment?
Narrow-body jetliners like Boeing 737 and Airbus A320.
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Post by AirBlue »

Multan can not cater the A320 due to the runway issues it has ... an A320 cannot t/o land there but a B737 can - hence no ED flights

Also, i think right now .... it is more important to equip PEW airport with an ILS as it has a VOR/visual approach right now - Other airports have that facility already - sure expansion is a good thing but to have diversions to ISB and LHE due to bad weather in PEW, and filling up the slots - and then asking private airlines in pakistan to depart from KHI to ISB/LHE late so that they can get the gates by the time they arrive at ISB/LHE; is not fair ... where as they would not give available slots that PIA has all the time.

Eg. ED 204 about to depart for ISB from KHI. When all set and ready to push back - the a/c gets a call that the flight is being delayed as the a/c that was doing the PEW flight has been diverted to ISB. The pax. will be transfered for PEW on a bus service by ED. Now the a/c that went to ISB instead for PEW took ED204's ISB spot for that time. That delayed the ED ISB flight for 30 mins. At the same time , there were 3 PIA spots empty at ISB all this time, which were not given to any other airline as they were PIA spots ... so the ILS would help at PEW ... so that the flights going there - go there
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Post by Abbas Ali »

AirBlue wrote:Multan can not cater the A320 due to the runway issues it has ... an A320 cannot t/o land there but a B737 can - hence no ED flights
That's interesting piece of info. I thought since both Boeing 737 and Airbus A320 belong to same category of narrow body aircraft, hence both should be able to land at Multan.

It means, CAA will have to speed-up Multan Airport upgradation work to accomodate PIA A320s due for delivery in 2009 as replacement for Boeing 737 aircraft in airline's fleet.

Currently, PIA is using Boeing 737 and ATR 42 aircraft for flights to/from Multan.
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Post by Imran Hassan »

AirBlue wrote:Multan can not cater the A320 due to the runway issues it has ... an A320 cannot t/o land there but a B737 can - hence no ED flights
What sort of runway issues are you referring to? Funny because I haven't heard anything like this before. I think Abbas is correct they belong to the same category and if anything the A320 should be more capable since its recently been approved for MLS CAT III which the 737 certainly doesn't have.
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Post by Abbas Ali »

Work On Multan Airport Upgradation To Start In June

By Saeed Akhtar Baloch

LAHORE (April 11 2008):
Work on the upgradation of Multan Airport is expected to begin in June this year and the first phase will be completed by 2010, Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) sources told Business Recorder.


The Project Will Be Completed In Two Phases: in the first phase, expansion of runway, taxi-way and apron will be carried out at an estimated cost of Rs 1.8 billion; while the second phase includes construction of a new terminal building and the allied facilities.

The sources said that PC-I for the first phase has been approved and all necessary arrangements have also been finalised by the CAA. "We are facing certain problems in acquisition of land from the army, therefore, it is hard to give time-frame for completion of the second phase," the sources disclosed. They, however, pointed out that negotiations for this purpose were continuing between the CAA high-ups and the GHQ officials to settle the issue shortly.

About total cost of the project, the sources said that the projected cost was Rs 4 billion, but was likely to rise. They also pointed out that the CAA would meet the total cost of the project thorough its own resources.

About the present facilities at the airport, they said that the existing runway had the landing facility for small aircrafts such as B737 while the new runway will have the landing facility for wide-bodied aircraft too. The sources further said: "After the completion of the project, we will be able to serve public and cater to the increasing air traffic in a better way."

They said that so far six flights are being operated from Multan to Dubai while after the project is completed, the frequency of operations will definitely increase. Regarding plan of shifting the airport to some other place, the sources said that due to unavailability of required land, it has been dropped.

Source: www.brecorder.com
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Post by BaDaR »

AirBlue wrote:Multan can not cater the A320 due to the runway issues it has ... an A320 cannot t/o land there but a B737 can - hence no ED flights
You must have got wrong info dear.

Multan Airport runway is 743 meter longer then Dortmund Airport(Germany)and Dortmund Airport is one of the European hub for easy jet and few other low cost airlines, all these airlines operating Boeing 737 or Airbus A318/19/20/21 series aircraft from Dortmund so i didn't understand why Multan can't cater 320 series?
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Post by busdriver »

having flown the 737s for PIA and now the A320, think i can shed some light on the topic, the runway length has nothing to do with type of aircraft opearting from it. even a 747 can take off from a short runway depending on the weight and other factors. the main determining factor which dictates aircraft operation from the runway is pavement strength. yes the 737 and A320 are in the same weight category but their max take off weights are different 737 (63 Tons) and A320 (77 Tons), so the multan runway pavement cannot sustain an aircraft which has a max weight of more than 63 tons or there abouts.
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