Karachiites suffer due to rescheduling of PIA flights to USA

[Moin]

Well alot of pax like to stopover in DXB on their way to LHR. Some prefer the service EK and QR offer, some like to have a drink with their meal which PIA doesn't offer (its BYOB), and one of the reasons QR is also taking a good share of pax from KHI is their fare difference versus PIA. They're J class fare is a good Rs.20K cheaper than PIA.

[zEro.a1r]

A central european stop is better then a UK stopover.

Why?

[PK777]

PIA clarification

KARACHI (June 17 2006): PIA clarify the news item published in the Daily Business Recorder dated June 16, 2006 with the heading "Karachiites suffer due to rescheduling of pia's flight to New York, Houston". The yields on Houston flight are low and the requirement for additional seats during season is normally in one direction only.

This therefore, makes operation of additional flight uneconomical for PIA. For this reason PIA is not in a position to mount extra flight to meet short-term requirements in one direction.

Prior to the implementation of Summer-2006 schedule, PIA was operating four flights to New York with one flight direct from Karachi. The Summer-2006 schedule effective March 2006 was planned with five flights to be operated by B-777LR aircraft.

One of these flights would have operated direct from Karachi to New York with no en-route stop. However, due to restrictions imposed by US Security, the passengers from Karachi could not benefit from this unmatchable product that would have provided them the convenience of non-stop flight. PIA faced difficulty while rescheduling flights due to aircraft and crew constraints resulting in re-routing of Karachi-Manchester-New York flight via Islamabad. However, from June 21, 2006 one flight will once again operate direct from Karachi to New York with only one stop at Manchester.-PR

Copyright Business Recorder, 2006

[Amaad Lone]

PK721 will now orginate from Lahore, going to New York via Karachi and Manchaster.

This way Karachi gets the "direct" flight that it wanted to New York.

PK715 Karachi-Lahore-Manchaster-New York 747M
PK711 Karachi-Lahore-Manchaster-New York 777
PK721 Lahore-Karachi-Manchaster-New York 777
PK723 Karachi-Islamabad-Manchaster-New York 777
PK717 Karachi-Islamabad-Manchaster-New York 747M

Is it not possible to orginate some of these flights from either Lahore or Islamabad, and not orginate every North American flights from Karachi adding an extra 3 hours of journey time for Karachi passengers??

The elimination of the domestic leg could save PIA a large amount of money in fuel bills, considering Tariq Kirmani keeps insisting on efforts to reduce fuel expenditure.

There are ten weekly North American flights which have the northern stopover. Five to New York, two to Chicago, one to Houston, and two to Toronto (third one is direct from Karachi).

That is 30 hours (1.5x2x10) of flying every week that PIA can avoid.

Or basically enough fuel to send an eleventh weekly flight across the Atlantic for free, or 1,560 hours of flying per year, consuming over ten million kilos of fuel if all the flights were operated by the fuel efficient 777 fleet.

PIA needs divide the North American flights between Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad, making them as direct and short as possible.