EASA Allows Pakistani Airlines to Resume Flights to/from Europe

[Abbas Ali]

European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) issues Third Country Operator (TCO) authorization to airblue for Europe flights.



Abbas

[Abbas Ali]

PIA planning return to Europe by starting flights between Islamabad and Paris.

Abbas

[Amaad Lone]

PIA should offer attractive fares for the Christmas season holidays and attract passengers from Europe to Pakistan. Even though most people have booked their flights way in advance the cheaper fares might attract some passengers to PIA.

A few A321-LRs would have been perfect, the 186 seaters offering the main hubs of Paris, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Rome Copenhagen and Oslo direct multiple flights from Islamabad and Lahore.

[Hassan777]

PIA will again operate 200ERs ans 300ERs on these routes they might not be able to fill seats all the time. PIA needs a middle option that has been absent since the A310s went. A321-LR/XLR are the best options for low load EU routes but that would take a long time to even deliver if PIA had the money.

China southern is selling 10 787-8s, this can be a great deal for PIA. If Air farce can get jets on deferred payments from China why not PIA? This will make PIA even more attractive for a potential buyer but why would our politicians beg for other than loans to fund elite subsidies.

Nevertheless, lifting of the ban will definitely attract new buyers for PIA.

[Abbas Ali]

Pakistani airlines PIA and airblue included in European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) list of Authorised Third Country Operators (TCO) allowed to operate flights to/from European Union (EU) member states.



Source: https://www.easa.europa.eu/download/tco ... Report.pdf

Abbas

[GEnx]

Is this applicable for UK too? Or for UK, they need another clearance? I don't get it why Airblue would apply for TCO in Europe when it plans to operate only to UK.

[Abbas Ali]

^ Separate UK clearance required.

Presently, all airlines from Pakistan banned from operating commercial air services to, from, and within the United Kingdom (UK).

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/uk-air-safety-list#pakistan

UK authorities expected to lift ban on Pakistani airlines by following EASA decision.

Abbas

[Abbas Ali]

PIA expects to resume flights to Europe, starting with Paris, within the next three to four weeks.

https://www.arabnews.pk/node/2581391/pakistan

[Abbas Ali]

Authorisation issued on November 29, 2024, by European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) permitting PIA to apply for commercial air transport operations into, within or out of European Union (EU).



Abbas

[TomcatTask]

To add to this, I believe Australian authorities also made their clearance contingent on the EASA decision. So if PIA is still interested in a route to Australia it may apply for permission with Australian authorities.

[adamalikhan]

I do not understand the excitement and posts from AirBlue. They never operated any flights to Europe, and so this news means nothing for them. They cannot see beyond the Middle East, mainly UAE & Saudi.

Yes they operated UK flights, but that is no longer part of Europe.

Now that permission has been granted, any Pakistani airline operating into the EU and hopefully the UK will b3 monitored closely, and so they must really step up.

[Amaad Lone]

This will make PIA even more attractive for a potential buyer but why would our politicians beg for other than loans to fund elite subsidies.

Not all elite are getting subsides.

There are few select such as the large landlords that get away without paying taxes and the retired and serving communities that decide who is going to rule Pakistan. Other than these two groups no one is getting any subsidy.

[danyal77W]

I wonder why airblue, in 21 years of its operation, has not been able to grow like any other airline in any other country would. I guess this is the slowest airline in terms of expanding its destinations. Its fleet looks okay - a decent one, I would say, to expand into markets other than UAE and Saudi Arabia.

After 21 years, it is still operating to markets in UAE and Saudia Arabia (just two international markets - that is a very stagnant growth).

In addition, although they have 12 aircrafts, each aircraft usually just operates 2 or max 4 flights a day, this is an under utilization of aircrafts.

In the past, they have operated to UK, Oman, and Turkey, but the flights were short-lived. I wonder why they are not able to sustain into new markets for a long period of time. Do they not do market demand research rigorously before making decisions to launch new decisions? Are they even interested in the world beyond Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

For domestic market, they did Peshawar, Quetta, and Multan from Karachi, but these flights also lasted a few months. What is the problem? I think that demand between the two cities should not be a problem as the cities have huge populations, and these cities are also not very well linked with highways.

[faisal-777]

I wonder why airblue, in 21 years of its operation, has not been able to grow like any other airline in any other country would. I guess this is the slowest airline in terms of expanding its destinations. Its fleet looks okay - a decent one, I would say, to expand into markets other than UAE and Saudi Arabia.

After 21 years, it is still operating to markets in UAE and Saudia Arabia (just two international markets - that is a very stagnant growth).

In addition, although they have 12 aircrafts, each aircraft usually just operates 2 or max 4 flights a day, this is an under utilization of aircrafts.

In the past, they have operated to UK, Oman, and Turkey, but the flights were short-lived. I wonder why they are not able to sustain into new markets for a long period of time. Do they not do market demand research rigorously before making decisions to launch new decisions? Are they even interested in the world beyond Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

For domestic market, they did Peshawar, Quetta, and Multan from Karachi, but these flights also lasted a few months. What is the problem? I think that demand between the two cities should not be a problem as the cities have huge populations, and these cities are also not very well linked with highways.

That is the reality of Pakistani aviation market in nutshell - our air passenger growth is first of all not growing in proportion to population, purchasing power decreasing and traffic remains concentrated to middle east. It is not an Airblue problem, it is our aviation market problem and airlines will do what market allows them to do.

Our Western traffic is first of all not growing as much as to middle east. Thus it makes complete sense that newcomers would start domestic and then tap into middle east.

I dont work or earn in middle east, but i can well imagine that cost of a return trip to Pakistan from UAE, Saudia, Qatar etc is not same % of your income as for the person working in Europe / USA. Therefore, the traffic remains nearly stagnant from west.

[Karachi Aviator]

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