airblue Completing 20 Years (2004-2024) of Non-stop Service

[Abbas Ali]

airblue completing 20 years (2004-2024) of service.

airblue started flight operations on June 18, 2004. The airline's launch routes with three Airbus A320 aircraft were Karachi-Islamabad-Karachi & Karachi-Lahore-Karachi.


airblue advertisement from year 2004.

Abbas

[danyal77W]

20 years later and still serving just two countries (UAE, Saudi Arabia) only along with a small domestic network. Peshawar and Quetta are no longer being operated. They are not even able to maintain consistent double daily on key domestic routes (KHI-LHE, KHI-ISB).

20 years later and still having a small fleet of 12 aircrafts out of which two are ALWAYS down for maintenance. This is not growth. It feels like 12 air crafts are also A LOT for this airline as some of the aircrafts only perform two flights a day, clearly showing under utilization of aircrafts resulting from a very small network.

[Tuti Fruiti]

20 years later and still serving just two countries (UAE, Saudi Arabia) only along with a small domestic network. Peshawar and Quetta are no longer being operated. They are not even able to maintain consistent double daily on key domestic routes (KHI-LHE, KHI-ISB).

20 years later and still having a small fleet of 12 aircrafts out of which two are ALWAYS down for maintenance. This is not growth. It feels like 12 air crafts are also A LOT for this airline as some of the aircrafts only perform two flights a day, clearly showing under utilization of aircrafts resulting from a very small network.

this is basically the summary of all Pakistani airlines and status of Pakistani aviation in general..handful of airplanes...3 domestic routes Lahore, Islamabad, Karachi..and internationally Saudi, Dubai more or less..

[danyal77W]

That is true, but I have highlighted airblue specifically because they are in the aviation sector now since 20 years, and that is quite a long time to actually develop the fleet and grow the network.

However, due to poor management, lack of funds, unfavorable aviation policies, no innovation, and low motivation to grow and develop lead to such poor metrics even after being in aviation industry for such a long time.

I think, at airblue, there is even zero motivation to even think outside the box. Because, I believe you can do a lot with 12 air crafts at your disposal. I have noticed that some of their aircrafts are just performing two flights in day, and for most of the day they are just standing idle on the tarmac. Low-cost carriers around the world mostly utilize one aircraft on at most six flights a day. The airplanes should be in the air for most of the time = greater revenue generation.

[adamalikhan]

So factually 20 years is a great achievement for a private Pakistani airlines. However it really has not achieved much in that time.

The airline struggles to maintain a double daily service on sectors such as Karachi-Islamabad and Karachi-Lahore. It did induct wide body aircraft (A340, A330) and launch routes beyond the Middle East (UK), only to stop and return to narrow body.

Such a shame that the airline does not have much scope to prosper and grow.