PIA commences Stanstead

B777240ER · Post by **B777240ER** » Thu Aug 03, 2006 8:45 am

I think PK may also start ISB-STN and LHE-STN aswell because most people from North East and East London fly to Northern Pakistan.

Also because of cheaper seats and more frequency, PK may gain (back) more customers.

smarties · Post by **smarties** » Thu Aug 03, 2006 8:56 am

Moin wrote:For me I think it would be a bit out of the way as my family is all in north London (Barnet area) and it takes me exactly 45 mins to get from there to LHR. I've timed it on all occasions and its always 45 mins give or take 5 mins or so and I'm sure going from there to STN would take a bit longer, not to mention the extra taxi fare it might cost. I get to LHR from my house for 30GBP.

Don't QR provide you with pick'n'drop service to/from the airport????

Moin · Post by **Moin** » Thu Aug 03, 2006 1:03 pm

Nope. And I don't think they do for F class pax either. If they had I'm sure it would have been advertised somewhere or I would have heard about it. I know EK do and now so does PIA. Strange.

smarties · Post by **smarties** » Thu Aug 03, 2006 1:22 pm

Moin wrote:Nope. And I don't think they do for F class pax either. If they had I'm sure it would have been advertised somewhere or I would have heard about it. I know EK do and now so does PIA. Strange.

That is really bad. I mean it is a 5*airline and they should provide this basic service to their passengers who fly in F and J. Even Gulf Air provide pick'ndrop service.

however, i did find this on the qmiles website:

9.2 Limousine service is available in the UK to Gold members flying on Qatar Airways on a fully paid ticket in the following First or Business booking classes F, A, J and D.

this is the site i got it from:

http://www.qmiles.com/index.php?id=72,77,1,1,1,0&tandc=

sadiqhassan · Post by **sadiqhassan** » Thu Aug 03, 2006 3:25 pm

smarties wrote:
That is really bad. I mean it is a 5*airline and they should provide this basic service to their passengers who fly in F and J. Even Gulf Air provide pick'ndrop service.

I agree that it does seem to be a disadvantage compared to other middle eastern airlines, but worldwide a free transfer is not too common. A few other airline (such as VS in full fare J, and MH) offer it, but it definately isn't the norm.

bagold · Post by **bagold** » Thu Aug 03, 2006 3:35 pm

Moin wrote: For me I think it would be a bit out of the way as my family is all in north London (Barnet area) and it takes me exactly 45 mins to get from there to LHR. I've timed it on all occasions and its always 45 mins give or take 5 mins or so and I'm sure going from there to STN would take a bit longer, not to mention the extra taxi fare it might cost. I get to LHR from my house for 30GBP.

Moin,

It seems that we may be almost neighbours. We live in Edgware and my son goes to school in Barnet. We travelled to Turkey many years ago from STN. The drive was no worse than that to LHR - straight up the A1, then M25 and M11. Dual carriageway all the way.

This may even make me think of using PIA in the future.

Gulistan · Post by **Gulistan** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 12:05 pm

PIA might want to think about extending the flight to USA / Canada. I dont think they are any other carriers flying there fron STN now. The flights will be full around the holiday period but outside of this demand will taper off.

Moin · Post by **Moin** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 2:41 pm

Well you're pretty close to my mom. She's in Colindale but my sister and her family are all in Totteridge. I sometimes use that internet cafe (Explorer) opposite Hendon Central tube station.

CoyBoy · Post by **CoyBoy** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 4:08 pm

EL AL fly to some where in the US from STN.

PK777 · Post by **PK777** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 5:45 pm

Now appearing on the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) website;

Source: PIA Official Website

SalamPaks · Post by **SalamPaks** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 9:10 pm

If PIA were to fly IAH-STN and ORD-STN with traffic rights and a reasonably good frequency, I might consider flying those routes with them.

Jacobin777 · Post by **Jacobin777** » Sat Aug 05, 2006 3:46 am

Gulistan wrote:PIA might want to think about extending the flight to USA / Canada. I dont think they are any other carriers flying there fron STN now. The flights will be full around the holiday period but outside of this demand will taper off.

actually there are....EOS and MAXJET..

http://www.eosairlines.com/index.html

http://maxjet.com/

ord · Post by **ord** » Fri Aug 25, 2006 4:53 am

smarties wrote:
well if that is the case, maybe PIA should have started Luton instead of STN? All the places u mention Luton would be much closer.

Luton can barely handle the domestic and EU flights it has right now and does not have the infrastructure in place to attract inter-continental services.

I think over the next ten years, you will see more inter-continental (mainly N.A.) services out of STN. Continental did fly between STN and EWR and considering that it was a brand new route, not previously served by other American carriers, the service was doing quite well. However, it was suspended after 9/11.

But the way CO has expanded EWR-Europe services to secondary EU points in the last three years, I would not be surprised if EWR-STN is relaunched soon.

NOTE: Part of the "blame" for this falls on the UK government as it caps BAA's profit based on average return on assests (15%). BAA thus has an incentive to shuffle money from the highly profitable Heathrow operation and spend it on cap ex at Stansted and its other secondary airports in the U.K. and thus cap its margins at the ceiling to avoid a reduction in landing charges.

Moin wrote: In any case STN is quite a pleasant airport, not the crowded fish market that is LHR and it won't be so hectic and chaotic, and PIA will be the first major intl scheduled carrier to operate there, hence they should take full advantage of it.

I agree. IMO, there is no travel experience worse than the complete and utter DUMP that is Heathrow terminal 3. Outdated, inconvinient, FILTHY and totally out of sink with the extermely high standards of many of its users (SQ, QR, etc.)

See above for the reasons STN has much better infrastructure than LHR.

Moin wrote:
Does STN come under this rather enigmatic 'bilateral' agreement? If this route takes off, they could add another 2 flights, with one or both originating in LHE or ISB via KHI, thereby allowing KHI to offer a daily flight to London with 2 extra from up north.

No. The restrictions are only for LHR/LGW and like I said were put there because PIA wanted it that way (BA were at the time serving ISB daily I believe and PIA being PIA probably wanted to limit any future expansion to Pakistan).