Here are my trip reports for my LHE-KHI-LHE flights a couple of days ago. For the first time since 2005 I was about to fly, and for the first time by airblue.
I booked my seat about 10 hrs before departure and got a pretty good if not the lowest fare for LHE-KHI-LHE at Rs. 9200…PIA was offering the same at 12100, and Shaheen at 8500….
Outbound – LHE-KHI
Carrier: Airblue
Flight No: 403
Origin: Lahore
Departure: 1030
Destination: Karachi
Arrival: 1210
Aircraft: Airbus 320
Registration: AP-BGU
Commander: Capt. Rizwan
Estimated Flight time: 1 hour 45 min
Total flight time: 1 hour 40 min
Cruise Alt: 36000 ft
I reached the beautiful airport of my beautiful Lahore at around 0900 hours and exchanged quick good byes with my family before heading off through domestic departures.
There was no line for security, a quick check and I was on my way. Along with me were a few PIA passengers apparently going….well….somewhere……I spotted Geo’s “Hum Sab Umeed Say Hein†actor who plays President Musharraf, a quick check in followed and I was allocated seat 9A – emergency exit row – and having no check in baggage, I proceeded to one more security check, had my luggage tag and boarding pass stamped.
The domestic area was very nearly empty, with less than a 100 people there, all crowded around the airblue gate. I saw PIA 743 AP-BGG parked at gate 12 I believe.
After a few minutes PIA passengers to Multan were called to gate 14, which was to be the airblue gate later on.
I saw a 310 wearing the wavy flag tail zoom away and climb like crazy, soon followed by 310 AP-BGQ. A few minutes later the Multan bound PIA 737 AP-BCD left, and 310 AP-bGS Ziarat came into gate 13.
AP-BGS and BGG...note the "There is a song in the air" add of PIA
Seconds later 737 AP-BCB Multan pulled into the parking area on the other side of the apron.
AP-BCB
I made a couple of phone calls and just sat there waiting for 1000, when boarding was to be announced.
After the PIA pax had left, no more than 50 or 60 pax were left for Karachi. At 0945 Airblue 320 AP-BGU came in and off loaded about 130 pax…….yes I did count them…….there was nothing better to do….and besides they were all coming single file in a long….a very long line……
1000, and boarding was called, first for the elderly and people with special needs, after that I was the 5th to board the plane….first time I’ve seen scanners being used to scan your boarding passes.
I was welcomed aboard AP-BGU by a beautiful smiling flight attendant, and made my way to seat 9, placed my bag in the overhead bin and sat down to enjoy the view…..from a badly stained window……
My seat was 9A, an emergency exit row, but my seat didn’t have an arm rest on the left side…….and the cushion was either fasting too much or missing because the seat had kind of ‘sat down’ itself.
At this time I took a couple of quick shots out of the window after asking one very nice flight attendant. I also took a couple of pillows for my seat.
AP-BGS, with untitled white prop in the bakground...
One more pax came onto 9C, and with about 50 or so folks on board doors were closed.
The flight attendants were very helpful throughout the boarding process to people, stowing their luggage and helping them locate their seats.
Then another flight attendant saw my camera…..and told me “sorry sir, that’s not allowedâ€ÂÂ, My seat mate was making a movie on his new nokia N blah blah hundred, and the F/A asked him to turn it off immediately in quite a stern tone.
I thought it wise not to take any chances with her.
The bloke then found out his seat wouldn’t recline so the F’A’s sent him back a couple of rows.
We pushed back at around 1025, and we were welcomed on board by Captain Rizwan’s crew. Dua e Safar was also read, and unlike I had expected, it was read without any pronunciation errors on the part of the flight attendant. A quick taxi to the runway with the safety demo, and a powerful take off followed. After liftoff there was some light turbulence for a minute or so, and seatbelts signs were turned off after a few minutes…once again we hit a patch of turbulence, sign came back on, and stayed on for 5 mintues. The flight attendants were then introduced, a nice touch I thought.
The remainder of the flight was quite smooth….Like I mentioned seat 9A was in quite bad shape, and the pillows were going to hold me long enough only for the approach and landing now, so I shifted to 9B.
A meal was served to pax who weren’t fasting….I think they only served a couple of people or so.
IFE was …. Ahem….. boring lets say?????…..even though the flight attendants mentioned that there would be some music available, there was none …..
I dozed off for about half an hour……I was awake all night the previous night, I woke up once we had started our descent.
Karachi, like Lahore had a little bit of turbulence during our descent….This was my first visit to this city, and I was exploring the ground below throughout the approach. A couple of large turns were made to the right, and this time we hit some light - moderate turbulence that went on right till we touched down…..This time there were some sounds from the overhead bins and heads turned away from windows every now and then to make sure noting was about to fall down…..In the few minutes that I did see Karachi I only figured out the fact that it must be quite large…….
We landed on runway 7L at about 1155, a landing somewhere between smooth and hard….then came the reverse thrust…..and my window hatch shook so violently I seriously thought it was gonna blow out…..too bad I didn’t remember they actually open inwards…we vacated the active and taxied to gate 12, seeing PIA 773 AP-BHV – boy its huge….real huge – even though I saw it at Lahore a couple of months back, it looked much, much bigger up close – and PIA 733 AP-BEH parked on the taxiway along the international terminal…..While there was a tug attached to it, both its cargo doors were open and there were no folks around…..at least I didn’t see anyone around the tug or nose wheel……
we turned and parked at I don’t know what gate, catching a PIA 737 wearing the Sarhad tail and a Shaheen 732.
As soon as we were parked, everyone got up and lined up in the aisle….but….no door was opened…..after about 5 minutes, an announcement was made….Folks for your “Sahulat†(convenience) we are opening the rear door…..thank you……the pax were about to clap and have some cake after this but decided to leave quietly since they were fasting, though one lady started saying “meray khiyal meing sahulat ghalat bol gaye†and an elderly gentleman in business class started telling everyone how good PIA was and how he couldn’t get a seat on it so he flew airblue and zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
I waited till the very end, wanting to catch a word with the flight attendants.
I chatted a bit to the flight attendant who told me to stop taking photos and asked her about photography, she said she’d look into it…..she was surprised when I told her about some of my brave friends who can snap away freely at everything…..thanks to reasons better known to them…..she said it was a CAA thingy…..anyway I thanked her and another F/A for their service, told them it was my first flight with them, they were really nice.
I was the 2nd last off the airplane, and we were filled in to a single bus…..when I got on, the driver decided to give me an extra special welcome to Karachi and decided to close the door while I was in and my bag was out of the bus……..ahem…..anyways he opened the door once the ramp agents around started yelling at him ……
At this point, still not quite over the shock of seeing AP-BHV head on, I was more surprised to see an EK 773 taxiing in from behind some buildings……
Anyway, we went straight towards the international terminal made a turn and came upon PIA 310 AP-BGR, who’s cockpit windows were being cleaned, while a Sarhad tail 310 was docked at another gate.
We entered the terminal throught a gate near some jetway and I quickly made my way to the exit for my couple of days in Karachi…….
On my way to the city, passing by the Ispahani hangar, I saw:
- 2 Punjab tail 747s
- 2 Sindh tail 747s, AP-BFX Karachi was in the engine test bay
- 1 mysterious all white 747 with a blue tail and an orange and white logo on it
- 1 all white twin engine jet, with a blue tail with what looked like a white logo on it
AP-BHW landing
from left: AP-BFV's tail, Punjab tail 747, blue tail 747, and a blue tailed twin engine jet....
2 Sindh tail 747s, the one on the right would be BFX, and one Punjab tail 747.....
Inbound – KHI-LHE
Carrier: Airblue
Flight No: 406
Origin: Karachi
Departure: 1900
Destination: Lahore
Arrival: 2035
Aircraft: Airbus 320
Registration: AP-BGU
Commander: Captain Wakar
Estimated Flight time: 1 hour 22 miuntes
Total flight time: 1 hour 35 minutes
Cruise Alt: 35000 ft
After attending to my errands in Karachi, I arrived at the airport at around 4 pm for my 7 pm flight. On my way, I saw AP-BHW landing at runway 7. I had some time to kill, so I went up to the observation area…..I cant believe they don’t allow cameras there……huh……anyway, I saw a number of great airplanes, Airblue 321 AP-BRJ, PIA 777-200 AP-BGL and 777-300 AP-BHW parked at the domestic terminal. A Shaheen 732 was pushed back from the international terminal, PIA 310 AP-BGQ Sialkot was towed in to the domestic terminal…..despite being towed, its engines were on, and its rear cargo door was open…..minutes later sister ship AP-BGP Murree came in, followed by an ATR in the Baluchi tail….it taxied by on one engine.
Then I went down to the domestic departures area at around 5 or so. While I went up to the Airblue counter and waited for them to start check in, I noticed an elderly gentleman running towards the Shaheen counter on my right hand side. Strangely, despite his flight being to Lahore at 1900 as well, the check in agents at the Shaheen counter told him they couldn’t take him now.
Anyway, I got my boarding pass, seat 17A this time, and was handed an Airblue Iftar box and headed towards the terminal.
After passing security I went ahead to gate 13, and was pleasantly surprised to see PIA 742 Combi AP-BAT parked at Gate 12. I made a note in my mind to get a picture of this beautiful, beautiful airplane on my way out.
I made a preliminary examination of my Iftar box and finding no water, purchased a bottle from one of the shops, then went to send a couple of mails…and check out HOP forums, of course!
At about 1800 I went back to gate 13, now a PIA 737 in the Sarhad tail was on gate 12 and an Airblue 320 on gate 13, so I couldn’t catch my airplane’s registration. Many PIA pax were seated around the area for PK 306 to Lahore, with gate 13 instead of 14 printed on their boarding passes…..A few minutes later PIA announced that their pax could get iftar boxes from gate 14, and then announced boarding…..lucky people….flying on AP-BAT just like that……
At about 1825 boarding was announced, I was the 3rd or 4th pax on the plane, still didn’t catch the reg. Jetway seemed neat….but I could well imagine what it must have been like in the rain after seeing what the Karachi folks did with their car silencers…….
I made my way to seat 17, and after placing my luggage in the overhead bin, sat down and discreetly took a picture of AP-BAT, didn’t want to risk asking the F/A and being told “sorry, no picturesâ€ÂÂ.
AP-BAT....
A couple of minutes later, Iftar was announced, and I enjoyed the meal containing pakoras, a piece of chocolate cake, nestle fruit yogurt, an orange juice carton, a chicken sandwich type thingy and a kebab.
Boarding was nearly complete, just a couple of more people came on, and we were set for pushback.
Airblue Iftar
At this time I saw a couple of interesting things….first a guy talking to someone on his cell thought the F/A call button made a nice noise and decided the person on the other line should hear it a couple of times, so there were a couple of dings and 2 F/A’s turned away from the other pax to ask him what he wanted.
After that, a guy a couple of rows behind me started smoking, and a flight attendant immediately went up to him and very sternly ordered him to hand over his cigarette while asking him “Aap ko yeh nishan (no smoking wala ) nazar nahi a raha? Aap jahaz mein pehli dafa bethein hain kya? Aap ko is nishan ka matlab nahi pata?â€ÂÂ…….
we then started our pushback, before the PIA, and taxied quickly to runway 25 I think…..The Shaheen took off before us making a lot of noise, and we turned on to the runway. As we started the take off roll, I saw AP-BAT had been pushed back, the tug was still on though….
A powerful take off followed, a light bit of turbulence, and we were off to good old Lahore……
While passing over the Ispahani, I saw:
- AP-BFV, flag tail, no engines
- Blue tail with orange and white logo, white fuselage 747….with engines
- Sindh tail 747 with engines covered up
- Punjab tail 747 half inside the hangar….
- another PIA airplane, probably a 310, whose nose was visible against the left wing of the Punjab 747 parked in the hangar…
- the mysterious blue tailed twin engine, probably an A300
It was a beautiful view outside, with the sun just setting, beautiful shades of teal and blue mixing with the night sky…….
A few minutes later, a meal service started. This time we were offered a choice of pasta(really) or chicken…..naturally it was chicken for me……
It was pretty good, white rice with a rich chicken curry…..there was some kind of bean or something salad, a dinner roll and totally melted Nurpur butter…which looked more like some old mayonnaise….but otherwise it tasted fine…..
Airblue Dinner
The plastic cutlery, napkin, etc came in a paper bag with its contents clearly marked….a nice touch I think…..
After the trays were cleared up, I tried my best to catch something on the ife….which was showing some singer named Farooq sitting in a jeep yelling at a couple of desi girls to get out of his way….and from what I understood they became friends and went on together, the 3 of them to pluck poisonous flowers to kill the director for making such an amazing video……….I mean seriously….what does Airblue launch new singers on their ife or what???? Once again there was no inflight music, though it was announced there would be, and the flight attendants were sorry we haven’t put it on…..
Before I knew it we were starting our descent into good ol’ Lahore…….during our descent, spoilers were deployed……made a loud noise though…….
finally we were lined up for the runway, gear and flaps were lowered and finally at 2035 we touched down……landing was nearly the same as it had been at Karachi, reversers were applied and we vacated the active to taxi back to the apron….On our way past the parkings on the side opposite the terminal, I saw an ACT cargo Airbus 300, the same white prop I had seen earlier and a lovely Saudia 743 and a PIA 310 or two…we docked again at gate 14….This time the Captain was apparently in a hurry to switch power, we lost power for about a minute with emergency floor lighting on…….
Once power was back on, the door was opened and pax started deboarding, once again I had a chat with the flight attendants…making it a note to complement the lady who had asked the guy to stop smoking, and I was off the airplane…..While in the jetway, I heard the lovely Saudia’s huge RR’s throttle up and caught a glimpse of it through the side door on the jetway….from the other side of the jetway I caught the registration of my sweet little 320 and hurried off through arrivals to Butt murgh chholay but that’s another story……….
All in all, Airblue was a wonderful experience…..as mentioned by them in their IFE announcement, passengers do expect excellence from them, I don’t see why they should expect anything less, and their crew and inflight service practically exceeds excellence in all aspects….however I feel it is necessary to highlight a couple of points;
a) let people take pictures as long as its through the window….
b) during the Urdu safety brief, it is said:
‘smoking jahaz kay kisi bhi hissay may mana hai’ (smoking is prohibited in any part of the airplane)
it should be ‘smoking jahaz kay “har†hissay may mana hai’ (smoking is prohibited on every part of the airplane
c) IFE needs some serious updating and at least one music channel…..
Besides that, Airblue was a great experience…..I would definitely love to fly with them again and recommend them to anyone who is flying domestic…..
