Farooq Ahmed Khan Leghari International Airport - Dera Ghazi Khan
Pakistan Airports Authority (PAA) invites proposals for the following services from reputed national/international firms/Joint Venture (JV) consortium:
Request for Proposal (RFP) for hiring of consultancy for planning, designing and supervision of construction of airside infrastructure at Farooq Ahmed Khan Leghari (FAKL) International Airport - Dera Ghazi Khan.
Pakistan Airports Authority (PAA) Request for Proposals (RFP) in January 25 newspaper:
Dera Ghazi Khan and Bahawalpur are a 2 hour drive away from MUX. CAA should focus on policies which bring in airlines to these airports first and then upgrade the airports if there is sufficient demand. Why spend resources on such projects when no one's gonna fly there? Useless spending by the state is a major problem in Pakistan.
Farooq Ahmad Khan Leghari International Airport - Dera Ghazi Khan to be upgraded with the cooperation of Asian Development Bank (ADB).
Farooq Ahmad Khan Leghari International Airport - Dera Ghazi Khan upgrade project launching ceremony held on February 22, 2025, graced by Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. Project cost PKR 2 billion.
Is the current runway long enough for a320 operations? I assume no airline flies there because of MUX being in close proximity.
DG Khan, Bahawalpur, RYK, DI Khan, Sukkur, Gwadar, Turbat etc... all can be connected to Karachi using atrs (or any other aircraft in the future) with connections to the ME. It might help PIA regain the lost passenger volume out of KHI. Whilst EK, FZ and other ME carriers are taking away the Karachi based passengers, PIA can fill up it's KHI-ME flights with passengers from these stations, offering them an alternate of travelling by road to another city and then taking a flight. Even 30-40 additional passengers on each PIA flight to ME out of Karachi would create a major difference. PIA flies from Karachi to Jeddah, Medina, Dammam, Muscat and Dubai. Most International passengers of Pakistan come from the ME and these smaller stations are missing out on a direct/indirect connection to the ME.
PIA should look at what Air India does. India is huge market but not all cities there get flights to the ME so Air India, Indigo etc.. connect those cities to 2-3 major stations like Mumbai or Delhi and serve not only the domestic demand but also take passengers beyond to international destinations.
In PIA / Pakistan's case, the market is smaller but the base is very similar, only 8 airports in Pakistan get flights from international airlines and other stations like these miss out. PIA should cash in on this since there is no competition here. There's a need to build at least some amount of transit passenger volume. It won't be that hard to fillup a small jet / turboprop aircraft given there's enough domestic demand too for Karachi.
Is the current runway long enough for a320 operations? I assume no airline flies there because of MUX being in close proximity.
DG Khan, Bahawalpur, RYK, DI Khan, Sukkur, Gwadar, Turbat etc... all can be connected to Karachi using atrs (or any other aircraft in the future) with connections to the ME. It might help PIA regain the lost passenger volume out of KHI. Whilst EK, FZ and other ME carriers are taking away the Karachi based passengers, PIA can fill up it's KHI-ME flights with passengers from these stations, offering them an alternate of travelling by road to another city and then taking a flight. Even 30-40 additional passengers on each PIA flight to ME out of Karachi would create a major difference. PIA flies from Karachi to Jeddah, Medina, Dammam, Muscat and Dubai. Most International passengers of Pakistan come from the ME and these smaller stations are missing out on a direct/indirect connection to the ME.
PIA should look at what Air India does. India is huge market but not all cities there get flights to the ME so Air India, Indigo etc.. connect those cities to 2-3 major stations like Mumbai or Delhi and serve not only the domestic demand but also take passengers beyond to international destinations.
In PIA / Pakistan's case, the market is smaller but the base is very similar, only 8 airports in Pakistan get flights from international airlines and other stations like these miss out. PIA should cash in on this since there is no competition here. There's a need to build at least some amount of transit passenger volume. It won't be that hard to fillup a small jet / turboprop aircraft given there's enough domestic demand too for Karachi.
Common sense doesn't prevail in Pakistan, keep dreaming. PIA would rather waste resources for one off flights, than longevity.
Abbas Ali wrote: Sun Feb 23, 2025 8:55 am
Upgraded Dera Ghazi Khan Airport is expected to attract low-cost airlines from UAE and Saudi Arabia.
Abbas
Make sense, often on my flights in and out of Multan, most of the passengers are coming from DG Khan and surrounding areas. This will take burden off of Multan Airport. Hope to see carriers serving Dera Ghazi Khan and other airports in Pakistan, more competition the better.
Abbas Ali wrote: Sun Feb 23, 2025 8:55 am
Upgraded Dera Ghazi Khan Airport is expected to attract low-cost airlines from UAE and Saudi Arabia.
Abbas
Make sense, often on my flights in and out of Multan, most of the passengers are coming from DG Khan and surrounding areas. This will take burden off of Multan Airport. Hope to see carriers serving Dera Ghazi Khan and other airports in Pakistan, more competition the better.
Why not upgrade Multan Airport then? Multan is already connected with all nearby cities with motorways
Building more airports in the country while aviation as a whole is Shrinking.
I see people on all PIA posts ask for DGK flights! Dude you can travel to any nearby airport with 1-2 hr drive that will cost you 1000-2000PKR fuel cost, instead they want an A320/ATR to pick them up from their city with Million of Rs worth of fuel burn per flight!
Might as well make an airport on their home roof!
No airline in their right mind will fly there
Even Faisalabad airport is excessive its only 2 hrs away form Lahore
Personally, at this point, I believe all these public works at secondary airports are being done, to allow the government to award contracts to their supporters (corruption).
Now if you look at it hypothetically, if there is enough demand from these stations than why not. Airports in major cities are mainly designed to serve that city, if there is enough traffic at secondary cities that don't get much air traffic than the government could perhaps provide some incentives for airlines to fly there. For example, If an airline is to operate from these types of airports, they may get discounts on landing fees or a discount on the amount they have to pay to use PAK airspace and so on. This could potentially make flying from these airports cheaper and may even attract people from the main cities to travel to these places for a cheaper flight. This will help the local community.
All in all, there is no point in upgrading these airports, without a comprehensive strategy to make it viable.
