PIA Flights Cancellations and Aircraft Availability

[Abbas Ali]

Thursday, December 08, 2011

KARACHI: A number of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) aircraft are out of operations due to unavailability of spare parts, due to which the entire flight schedule of the national flag carrier has been severely disturbed, sources said on Wednesday.

A Boeing 777 aircraft is parked at Kathmandu Airport, another Boeing 777 is parked at the Karachi Airport, while a Boeing 747, three Airbus A310, three Boeing 737 and two ATR aircraft are non-operational, reducing the fleet to 28 planes, they said.

A flight PK267 Karachi to Dhaka via Kathmandu would take the spare parts to Kathmandu for the Boeing 777, the sources said. Sultan Hasan, PIA spokesman, said that a Boeing 777 was hit by a bird in Kathmandu and it would be flying again in a day or two. Besides, there were a couple of planes under schedule maintenance, which is a regular feature of any airline.

Malik Tariq, a former PIA flight engineer, said that the current management is repeating the same mistake as in 2006, when the then management limited itself to just one parts vendor and faced a ban in the European Union by 2007.

“A front-man company, Transworld Aviation FZE, is the sole parts supplier of PIA at the moment. This company based in Dubai has no prior experience of this business and has also been denied supply of parts by the OEMs.” “That is the reason that PIA is short of spare parts and its planes are getting non-operational, causing cancellation of flights and delays,” said Malik.

The former PIA flight engineer sharply criticised this practice and said that no airline in the world kept just one vendor.

The non-supply of parts from Transworld has compelled the airline management to ground a Boeing 737 and an Airbus for unidentified period to take out some spares and make other planes serviceable, despite an agreement with the Dubai-based company, which offered a $700 million credit line, which does not seem providing any benefit to the empty stores of the national flag carrier.

Source: The News

[hasan saleem]

The following departing international flights have been cancelled today.

PIA-874 KHI-CMB
PIA-272 KHI-DEL
PIA-268 KHI-KTM
PIA-241 KHI-DMM

[Abbas Ali]

I think according to following news report, PIA Boeing 747-367 (AP-BFV) missing four engines remains on ground.

11 of 39 PIA planes grounded

By: Amraiz Khan | Published: December 08, 2011

LAHORE – PIA’s 11 planes of total 39 were grounded at Karachi Airport for repair work causing flight cancellation and delays in flight operation, sources confided to TheNation on Wednesday.

Flights cancelled and delayed due to unavailability of planes included PK- 267 operating on Dhaka Karachi Kathmandu sector. PK-789 Karachi-Lahore-Toronto was delayed more than 26 hours, PK-793 Karachi-Barcelona-Chicago was delayed by five hours. PK 451 and PK-452 Islamabad-Skardu-Islamabad was cancelled due to unavailability of aircraft.

Some other local flights were delayed owing to shortage of ATR aircraft which included PK-588 operating on Karachi-Bahawalpur-Lahore sector.

PK-155 oil company chartered flight Karachi-Kadanwari was delayed by three hours. PK 605,606,607 and 608 operating on Islamabad, Gilgit-Islamabad were cancelled due to unavailability of aircrafts. Similarly, 660 and 661 operating on Islamabad-Chitral-Peshawar were cancelled.

Sources claimed that among the planes grounded included three B-777 two at Karachi airport, one due to bird-hit while other owing to technical fault. A PIA officer said that Engineering Department has sent requisition for the spare parts for the plane and it would be available from Dubai or London. Third B-777 plane was grounded at Kathmandu Airport due to technical reasons. Two ATR aircrafts had been grounded at Karachi for the last three months both have problems in their engines.

Two planes B-737 were grounded for the last three to four months for the lack of four engines. One aircraft 747 is without four engines for the last three months, whereas three A-310 planes were short of five engines while their one engine was on routine check or inspection.

Due to flights cancellations and delays not only a national flag carrier was bearing more losses but passengers were also facing lot of problems on different airports of the country.

Sources said PIA management infact was not interested to solve issue of shortage of planes. It is very much evident with the deal struck by PIA management with Greece govt in the recent past under which two planes were acquired on lease basis.

A PIA senior officer said management can overcome the planes shortage by repairing the grounded aircrafts rather than getting the planes on lease.

Source: The Nation

[Umair94]

Flight PK763 from LHE to AMS has been cancceled

[Amaad Lone]

The crisis would probably come to an end once the hadj operation come to an end by december 10th.

With four 747-300 back in regular service along with some A310s and 777s, PIA should be able to return to some normalcy.

But what the management should realize is that once you screw over a passenger (by a cancelled flight), there is a strong chance he will never return to you.

Airline business is SERIVICE BUSINESS.

And service does not just mean serving desi food with a smile.

It means flying ON TIME and flight NOT CANCELLED.

[faisal-777]

The crisis would probably come to an end once the hadj operation come to an end by december 10th.

With four 747-300 back in regular service along with some A310s and 777s, PIA should be able to return to some normalcy.

But what the management should realize is that once you screw over a passenger (by a cancelled flight), there is a strong chance he will never return to you.

Airline business is SERIVICE BUSINESS.

And service does not just mean serving desi food with a smile.

It means flying ON TIME and flight NOT CANCELLED.

That is infact the problem that a passenger does return no matter what PIA does. Pakistanis dont have any other option. PIA is taking full benefit of captive base of customers. When someone isn't good at service, we should throw that person/organization in the bin and that's what we dont do because we dont have an option. I bet bring any other airline with half permissions or near that of operations of PIA, no one would be flying PIA.

[Abbas Ali]

SAMAA News channel showed passengers at Peshawar Airport protesting against cancellation of December 10 PIA flight PK-287 from Peshawar to Doha.

Some of the passengers have visas expiring in next few days and they were worried about it.

PIA officials are said to be trying to arrange seats on airline's other flights to Doha for passengers who have visas nearing expiry date.

Abbas

[jam2k94]

No Good News From PIA now days. What is going on with PIA? See the below link for the status of the grounded aircraft of PIA.

http://www.geo.tv/12-13-2011/u162339.htm

[qjfunk]

Can some one please fix the topic . PIA AIRCRAFTS FACE AIRWORTHINESS ISSUES!
WHAT THE HELL IS AIRCRAFT FITNESS? LOL

[Abbas Ali]

^ Topic title edited.

Abbas

[Abbas Ali]

DECEMBER 14 - According to Geo News, Pakistan CAA has grounded an ATR 42-500 and a Boeing 737-300 of PIA as these aircraft were missing some essential components/equipment or required change of some essential parts/components. CAA inspectors refused to give permission for flights with these aircraft.

The grounding of ATR has resulted in cancellation of PIA Karachi-Sukkur flight. While Karachi-Sialkot flight has been cancelled due to grounding of Boeing 737.

The grounding of these two aircraft has raised the total number of grounded aircraft to 17 in a fleet of 39 PIA aircraft.

Abbas

[Abbas Ali]

DECEMBER 15 - Ten flights from Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad cancelled today due to unavailability of aircraft, according to local news sources.

Btw, does anyone know total number of PIA aircraft grounded or undergoing maintenance checks these days ?

Abbas

[SalamPaks]

So PIA hardly has any working planes and Pakistan Railways has no diesel for it's trains. This really is unacceptable and demonstrates the height of mismanagement. All that's missing is a tyre shortage and intercity buses will grind to a halt too.

[zainmax]

DECEMBER 15 - Ten flights from Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad cancelled today due to unavailability of aircraft, according to local news sources.

Btw, does anyone know total number of PIA aircraft grounded or undergoing maintenance checks these days ?

Abbas

CAA Pakistan has given dead line of 15th Dec to PIA to conduct shake down inspections on all PIA aircraft at once and clear the snags. Entries made are very sensitive which includes paint chipped off, etc.

An average of 500 entries are made by CAA inspectors in which negligible things are also pointed out. In this regard number of planes are grounded and getting cleared.

[Abbas Ali]

According to local news channels, 18 PIA aircraft are grounded at the moment.

Abbas