PIA Starting Flights for Istanbul in November With Turkish Airlines Connecting Flights to Europe, UK and USA

[Amaad Lone]

In 2011 an agreement with Turkish Airlines was in progress when all PIA unions went on strike

In 2011 there was hope for PIA.

In 2011 PIA was not banned from UK, US and Europe.

In 2011 the then MD PIA was probably going to make a lot of money giving routes to Turkish and in return getting routes like Dhaka from Turkish.

In 2022 PIA is hopeless.

[Abbas Ali]

PIA starting flights for Istanbul from November 14 with 6 weekly flights - 4 flights from Islamabad & 2 flights from Lahore - further connecting over 28 points in USA, UK & Europe with airline's codeshare partner Turkish Airlines.



Abbas

[Abbas Ali]

PIA opens the world via Istanbul. Now you can fly 6 times a week from Islamabad & Lahore & connect to 28 other cities in Europe, UK & USA; with shortest possible transit times at Istanbul, through PIA codeshare partner Turkish Airlines.



Abbas

[ammad]

6x weekly from two cities combined for destination like IST is nothing. PIA should increase to daily flight from ISB, KHI, and LHE to IST for all traffic flying to EU, and for Americas.

UK ban, once removed PIA should operate from LHE, ISB direct flights.

For far east and beyond, HUB KUL station and fly from LHE , ISB and LHE and let others to take other carriers to take onward responsibility from KUL to beyond.

So in nutshell business plan for PIA,

For Americas: Only fly to YYZ station direct and forget any thing else.
For EU [except UK]: Don't add any station. Work with TK.
UK [after ban removed]: Operate as many direct flights as possible any number of time.
KSA: Operate as many direct flights as possible any number of time.
Far east and Oceana: Fly to KUL daily, and Let MH handle any traffic beyond KUL.

Domestic routes : Do what ever make business sense.

[adamalikhan]

Currently only flights to and from Istanbul can be booked. There are no connecting flights that can be booked on PIA website.

[Abbas Ali]

Fly to Istanbul

Non-stop flights with PIA

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Fly to Istanbul

Non-stop flights with PIA

Book through Golootlo app to get 10% discount* & a chance to win a smartphone.

Luck draw on 25th December 2022.

* Terms & Conditions Apply



Abbas

[Badar42]

Flights are now available on pia website and don't know what were they thinking. Transit time at Istanbul is between 1.5 hrs to 2.5 hrs approx for different uk airports,it's no where near enough considering PIAs punctuality and size of Istanbul airport

[MikeTangoKiloAlpha]

An online comment on another forum. Request worthy members to weigh in on this opinion please.

The idea seems to exploit PIA brand for the
carriage of Pakistani ethnic traffic beyond
Turkey to UK, Europe and US by code share
arrangements with Turkish Airlines.
This means that PIA will fly only upto Turkey
and Turkish Airlines will carry PIA passengers
to onward destinations, and vice versa.
Currently Turkish Airlines is already carrying
Pakistani passengers on these routes and will
continue to do so. Besides other strong brands
like British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, Emirates,
Qatar Airways and Etihad Airways are also
transporting traffic between Pakistan and
these markets, via their home airports.
Understandably Turkish Airlines will not hand
over its loyal passengers, under code share
arrangements, to PIA having negative safety
perception world wide.
With almost negligible traffic between Turkey
and Pakistan, half of PIA aircraft seats could
be empty and the remaining half would be
filled up by lowest price paying passengers,
incurring losses on each and every flight. A
round trip to Istanbul will cost PIA B777 about
$90,000 or half as much for A320 aircraft.

[ammad]

One liner reply to above quoted post.

Anti growth, negative mindset.


This code share will allow PIA to take share of "one stop" based EU market, currently dominated by ME3, via respective hubs.

US Market any way PIA have no presence. UK is lost due to Aviation minister, what are the other options for PIA?

[b78709]

One liner reply to above quoted post.

Anti growth, negative mindset.


This code share will allow PIA to take share of "one stop" based EU market, currently dominated by ME3, via respective hubs.

US Market any way PIA have no presence. UK is lost due to Aviation minister, what are the other options for PIA?

I can't agree more with this. Only the pro-EK/QR/Etihad lobby that opposed it in 2011 is opposing it again.

I find PIA connections better than on TK. Code-shared Istanbul onward flights have been listed and ticketable in PIA systems for several years already. Now, Pakistan-Istanbul legs have also become available in the system.

PIA prices and PIA baggage rules are also more attractive e.g. 28 kg/piece vs 23kg/piece for North America. One piece allowance on Air-Canada (& rest of NA carriers) and their partners in GCC also gives an edge to PIA & TK.Visa free transit at IST is much more attractive than anywhere else in EU and UK for Montreal, Vancouver, Seattle, San Francisco, Houston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Newark, Miami, etc.

[Usman123]

I think its a stupid argument against 777s losses PIA has only deployed its 777s on these routes because its expecting heavy traffic here and if not the case they can switch it to A320s in the future

The positive points :

1. Ease for Pakistani passengers to travel to EU, UK & USA
2. Shorter trips towards Eu and Uk unlike Emirates & Qatar which take double time on these routes
3. Reasonable fares for pax
4. Prove to Easa PIA flights are safe for EU ops
5. Turkey is a major tourist spot for Pakistanis

[Abbas Ali]

[Abbas Ali]

Hitit and PIA are meeting successful travel agents in Pakistan to inform them about PIA's upcoming flights to Istanbul which connect to over 28 destinations in USA, UK and Europe through airline's codeshare partner Turkish Airlines.

Events organized/to be organized in cities including Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar, Quetta, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Multan, Sialkot and Kharian.

Supplement in October 29 newspaper:



Abbas

[adamalikhan]

This onward connection looks like it is going to be fun and games.
I just spoke with PIA contact centre. Luggage will not be checked through to the final destination. Therefore the passenger needs to collect their checked luggage and then check in again for the onward flight. I told the advisor that 2 hours connection time will not be sufficient. She said I need to book a flight with minimum 4 hour connection. I then told her that all the flights to Manchester are either 2 hours or 30 hours. She had no idea what to advise.

Re flight changes, apparently I can make one free change for the leg operated by PIA but no changes to the onward connection. Is this hassle really worth it? Who has come up with this stupid idea of a codeshare that requires the passenger to do all this?

Istanbul Airport is massive and unlike ME3, staff are very unfriendly and most do speak proper English, none are Urdu speaking so there will be many disgruntled passengers.

[bukhari917]

This onward connection looks like it is going to be fun and games.
I just spoke with PIA contact centre. Luggage will not be checked through to the final destination. Therefore the passenger needs to collect their checked luggage and then check in again for the onward flight. I told the advisor that 2 hours connection time will not be sufficient. She said I need to book a flight with minimum 4 hour connection. I then told her that all the flights to Manchester are either 2 hours or 30 hours. She had no idea what to advise.

Re flight changes, apparently I can make one free change for the leg operated by PIA but no changes to the onward connection. Is this hassle really worth it? Who has come up with this stupid idea of a codeshare that requires the passenger to do all this?

Istanbul Airport is massive and unlike ME3, staff are very unfriendly and most do speak proper English, none are Urdu speaking so there will be many disgruntled passengers.

I believe contact center guy had no clue. Its impossible to collect baggage when its one ticket connecting you all the way to final destination.