These shots are dedicated to Saad Asad Cheema.....
Airblue eight niner eight heavy negotiates the ramp at Lahore's Allama Iqbal International under my highly competent command.
ED 898 is inbound from Sydney.
Flight 898 is now docked at the gate for a short one hour turnaround before operating a continuing service to Karachi.
While AP-BRC offloads Lahore bound passengers, the crew engages in serving snacks to about 200 passengers bound for Karachi.
A fresh set of crew now takes over command from the inbound crew from Sydney. This set of crew will perform a short 3 hour duty on the continuing flight to Karachi. Note Thai, PIA, Saudi and Kuwaiti traffic.
Now assuming the callsign Airblue four zero three heavy, the massive airbus boards domestic passengers bound for Karachi. While ED403 is normally operated by Airblue's huge fleet of A320 aircraft, on Sundays and Fridays, it is operated by an A346 which operates the inbound flight from Sydney to Karachi via Lahore.
Note that the jetway is off the airplane. Doors are still open for fresh air, but they will be closed momentarily as a new Captain takes command of this sleek & very sexy airplane.
"Assalam o Alaikum khawateen o hazrat....Airblue Captain Saad aur un kay amlay ki janib say aap ko....."
Rolling number 1, the heavy attracts the attention of onlookers from the terminal bridge.
ED403 is now taxiing to the active....
An evil sun reflects off the fuselage of AP-BRC.
Turning onto the active is one of Airblue's four Airbus A340s.
Rolling Airblue four zero three heavy.....
Rotate!!!!!
sweeeeet!
giving a good scare to sleepy residents of defence on a lazy sunday....
aaahhhh can you smell the sweetness of Lahore????
AP-BRC maintains its initial heading. Four of these gigantic ex-Qatari beasts now serve Airblue.
On approach to Karachi....
Short finals....
Down, reversers in full action as the huge beast struggles to slow down to a halt....
Taxiing back to the terminal....
At her stand on the international terminal. While the passengers from Sydney are offloaded through the jetway, the local passengers will now be bussed back to the local satellite.
Once belonging to Qatar Airways, four Airbus A340-642 High Gross Weight variants now form Airblue's long range and high demand route network. These aircraft are regulary seen from North America to Australia, operating non stop flights to destinations like Toronto, New York JFK, Houston, Chicago, London, Jeddah, Bangkok, Hong Kong and Sydney.
