PIA Resuming Islamabad-Chitral Flights

[Abbas Ali]

From April 5, PIA resuming flights between Islamabad and Chitral. Once-a-week ATR flight every Saturday.

Islamabad to Chitral

Route: Islamabad to Chitral
Flight Number: PK660
Day of Operation: Saturday
Aircraft Type: ATR 42-500
Departure from Islamabad: 10:10 AM
Arrival in Chitral: 11:10 AM
Flight Duration: 1 hour



Chitral to Islamabad

Route: Chitral to Islamabad
Flight Number: PK661
Day of Operation: Saturday
Aircraft Type: ATR 42-500
Departure from Chitral: 12:00 PM
Arrival in Islamabad: 1:05 PM
Flight Duration: 1 hour 5 minutes



Abbas

[planefan2003]

Surprising they still use this flight number after AP-BHO crash

[QMA243]

PIA should start flights between Peshawar & Chitral, as previously with the Fokker F-27, there used to be 3 daily flights between Peshawar & Chitral. but PIA gradually reduced the flights with the arrival of ATR's, and then permanently shift it to Islamabad with lesser num of flights, last year 2 weekly flights and now 1 weekly flight. The reason for low demand on ISL-CHI route is that as Islamabad airport is far away from main city, the transport cost are high reaching from city to airport and if flight is cancelled , the passenger has to bear alot of transport cost, as compared to peshawar airport which is situated near city and there is demand as well for this route.
One suggestion is PIA can also start combined route as ISL-CHI-PES-CHI-ISL as they started and continued this route in the mid 2010-2020.

[QMA243]

It looks like PIA discontinued its planned flights to Chitral before they even began, as there are currently no scheduled flights to &from Chitral listed on PIA website.

[QMA243]

https://chitraltimes.com/%D9%BE%D8%A7%D ... %85-%D8%A2

[Abbas Ali]

PIA failed to resume flights between Islamabad and Chitral due to poor passenger response.

https://www.dawn.com/news/amp/1902743

[Karachi Aviator]

PIA failed to resume flights between Islamabad and Chitral due to poor passenger response.

https://www.dawn.com/news/amp/1902743

What a joke, what else did they expect, starting just a 1x weekly flight? It's no rocket science to fill up a 48 seater ATR aircraft from Islamabad to pretty much any other station in Pakistan but PIA messes up here as well!

The biggest reason is that with just 2 operational ATRs, PIA can't operate these many flights, why not bring back the grounded ATRs first and then start these flights with a better frequency

[QMA243]

I failed to understand that Chitral, Gilgit & Skardu , all are tourist destinantions, Gilgit getting daily 2 flights (weekly 14 flights) and skardu getting weekly 23 flights and yet Chitral is not able to fill a single ATR for a week.
As i said earlier, ISL-CHT-PEW-CHT-ISL will attract more passenger, or just PEW-CHT will do it, as previously through Fokker F-27, there used to be 3 daily flights to chitral from Peshawar..
And also what about the ATR 72-600 ( AP-BKZ & AP-BKV), why are the grounded for over 5 years. why not using them for souhthern operations like KHI-SKZ, TUR-MUS, GWD-MUS, GWD-SHJ, TUR-AAL, and spare the ATR 42-500 (AP-BHI, AP-BHH) and also bring back the grounded AP-BHM, for the northern sectors.

[HassanKhan]

I failed to understand that Chitral, Gilgit & Skardu , all are tourist destinantions, Gilgit getting daily 2 flights (weekly 14 flights) and skardu getting weekly 23 flights and yet Chitral is not able to fill a single ATR for a week.
As i said earlier, ISL-CHT-PEW-CHT-ISL will attract more passenger, or just PEW-CHT will do it, as previously through Fokker F-27, there used to be 3 daily flights to chitral from Peshawar..
And also what about the ATR 72-600 ( AP-BKZ & AP-BKV), why are the grounded for over 5 years. why not using them for souhthern operations like KHI-SKZ, TUR-MUS, GWD-MUS, GWD-SHJ, TUR-AAL, and spare the ATR 42-500 (AP-BHI, AP-BHH) and also bring back the grounded AP-BHM, for the northern sectors.

Many of these ATRs are damaged beyond repair