AirBlue plans to launch Islamabad-UK operation in May 2007

Abbas Ali · Post by **Abbas Ali** » Sat Jan 27, 2007 4:48 am

KARACHI: One of Pakistan's private sector airlines, Airblue, on Friday announced plans to launch its first long-haul international operation between Islamabad and Manchester, United Kingdom, from the middle of May, 2007.

According to a press release issued here, the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Air Blue, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said the airline had been evaluating proposal to operate to UK for over a year and completed all necessary official requirements to launch the flights.

He said the airline first obtained official permission from government for operations and formal permission was obtained from the UK Department of Transportation.

The decision to start operation to Manchester was taken in the wake of large strength of Pakistani community in the region, Abbasi said.

Negotiations are in process with Manchester Airport Group on details of flight operation, which include slot timing, handling, engineering, catering and other allied support functions, the press release added.

With a fleet of six Airbus aircraft, Airblue operates more than 30 flights a day to seven domestic destinations and three daily flights to Dubai.

It has operated more than 10,000 flights in the last 30 months carrying over 2 million passengers on its network with revenues in excess of Rs12 billion.

Source: The News

On the Net: airblue.com

flyingsystem · Post by **flyingsystem** » Sat Jan 27, 2007 3:34 pm

Good luck to them!
But nothing about the plane they'll use. Because as far as I know, they did not place any order a wide body jet.

AirBlue · Post by **AirBlue** » Sat Jan 27, 2007 8:31 pm

orders are placed for new planes .... but thier delivery dates are in late 08 .... now they need something to start this operation with ... they dont care if they find a 330 or a 340 ...they just want to start flying there now

sadiqhassan · Post by **sadiqhassan** » Sat Jan 27, 2007 8:36 pm

I hope they can fly with a reasonable frequency

AirBlue · Post by **AirBlue** » Sat Jan 27, 2007 8:37 pm

they are most probably going to have one daily ISB-MAN

behramjee · Post by **behramjee** » Sun Jan 28, 2007 12:51 am

for a daily ISB-MAN-ISB flight, you only need one aircraft though its always best to have a spare incase something happens.

the smallest acft that can do this route nonstop is the A 310.

ED should not lease in an AB6 as this acft cannot fly to UK nonstop from ISB.

2 A 310s should be leased in, one for daily ISB-MAN-ISB flights and one should be put on ISB-AUH/DXB-ISB flights and as a cover up incase the A 310 dedicated for MAN has technical problems.

I also am not fond of ED wanting to launch long haul flights to MAN from ISB as PIA have 5 weekly B 743 terminator flights on this route + 2 weekly B 777s which continue onwards to ORD/JFK...i.e. too much capacity and competition from PIA for ED to compete against on this route unless ofcourse a new A 332 is leased in

However, from LHE, PIA flies 2 weekly B 743 terminator flights + 4 weekly B 777s which continue onwards to ORD/IAH/JFK so less capacity on this route.

Now from MAN, if ED really want their flight to work, they should NOT only focus on the O&D market that exists between PAK and MAN. They should also strongly focus on the trans-atlantic feeder market from USA which can be gotten via SPA deals with CO-AA and DL on their ORD/EWR/ATL-MAN daily flights. This will therefore enable ED to offer a ONE STOP product from USA to PAK via MAN.

In order for it to work, ED must time its MAN flights in a way that it arrives into MAN at 730am-8am as the CO/AA/DL flights depart for USA between 930am and noon and depart MAN for Pakistan at noon/1pm as the US carriers arrive into MAN between 730am and 11am from their hub airports.

So the flight schedule should be as follows if ED want ISB-MAN-ISB :

Dep ISB 0355 Arr MAN 0725
Dep MAN 1145 Arr ISB 0035+1

sadiqhassan · Post by **sadiqhassan** » Sun Jan 28, 2007 3:54 am

MAN is also a much nicer place to transit than LHR/CDG/FRA so if given a choice between MAN and another option I'd probably go through MAN unless the timings were really bad.

Does Air Blue have interline agreements with CO/AA/DL currently? BA told me that they don't currently.

behramjee · Post by **behramjee** » Sun Jan 28, 2007 4:35 am

ED has SPA + interline baggage agreements with all the major EU airlines on DXB-KHI-DXB route.

they dont have spas for dxb-europe route with anyone.

i still think that they can make a lot of money by sending their A 321s 4-5 times week to BKK from LHE rather than leasing in an expensive widebodied acft for MAN service when BKK lacks competition from LHE/ISB.

Abrardh1 · Post by **Abrardh1** » Mon Jan 29, 2007 2:54 pm

I hope they start this service before end May early june as I'm planning to go to Pakistan this year (Inshallah)

CoyBoy · Post by **CoyBoy** » Mon Jan 29, 2007 3:07 pm

A post at pakistaniaviation.com says that Shaheen will also be starting service to London Luton in March, they are looking at 767 or A310 for the purpose, they have dropped Doncaster Robin Hood plan.

Jacobin777 · Post by **Jacobin777** » Mon Jan 29, 2007 3:32 pm

Whatever happened to PK's STN flight?

Also, I think BD is in the process of acquiring A330's for their long haul routes....

I flew BD KHI-DXB earlier this month...decent services..but hate the fact I had to take a taxi to DXB's terminal 3 from terminal 1...

mohammed younis · Post by **mohammed younis** » Mon Jan 29, 2007 5:50 pm

Jacobin wrote:

What ever happened to Pk's STN flight?

The Stansted flights are running as normal

Class Of Travel
Busn Econ+ Econ

PK- 774 Leaves STN at 04:30 pm. - Tue 30 Jan

Arrives Karachi, PAKISTAN at 05:35 am. - Wed 31 Jan

sadiqhassan · Post by **sadiqhassan** » Mon Jan 29, 2007 6:53 pm

Jacobin777 wrote:Whatever happened to PK's STN flight?

Also, I think BD is in the process of acquiring A330's for their long haul routes....

I flew BD KHI-DXB earlier this month...decent services..but hate the fact I had to take a taxi to DXB's terminal 3 from terminal 1...

I found that quite annoying too... thankfully I had a driver to take me on the trip.

A word of caution to other pax: If you are connecting in Dubai between T1 and T2/T3 leave at least 3 hours. We landed at 2235 in T1 and got to ED check in barely in time for the 0100 flight.

Jacobin777 · Post by **Jacobin777** » Mon Jan 29, 2007 10:51 pm

sadiqhassan wrote:
Jacobin777 wrote:Whatever happened to PK's STN flight?

Also, I think BD is in the process of acquiring A330's for their long haul routes....

I flew BD KHI-DXB earlier this month...decent services..but hate the fact I had to take a taxi to DXB's terminal 3 from terminal 1...
I found that quite annoying too... thankfully I had a driver to take me on the trip.

A word of caution to other pax: If you are connecting in Dubai between T1 and T2/T3 leave at least 3 hours. We landed at 2235 in T1 and got to ED check in barely in time for the 0100 flight.

You are lucky..it costed me almost a bloody $20 dollars for that "cab ride"....its not the money, but the fact its a hassle to deal with it...not going to happen again...

..and I agree..give 3 hours transit time...anything less, and you are going to be pushing it...

mohammed younis wrote:Jacobin wrote:
What ever happened to Pk's STN flight?
The Stansted flights are running as normal

Class Of Travel
Busn Econ+ Econ

PK- 774 Leaves STN at 04:30 pm. - Tue 30 Jan

Arrives Karachi, PAKISTAN at 05:35 am. - Wed 31 Jan

Intersting..I don't see it on their website..but thanks for the information...

What plane is it? A310?

mohammed younis · Post by **mohammed younis** » Mon Jan 29, 2007 11:19 pm

PIA usualy operate A310s to Stansted

STN - KHI - ISB

click on schedules on the PIA webpage