Birmingham: Pakistan International Airlines Flights, New Routes & Schedule Updates

[juliet-fox-9]

for those who haven’t read the news, they are haggling over an order of 16 aircraft but have not yet reached a deal.

Boeing often have a backlog so I think leasing from Norse would be better as an interim option - otherwise I doubt they will meet the target date for starting

 

[Finger66]

Well Norse do apparently have 5 aircraft available after the termination of their agreement with Indigo so they will need to find something for those aircraft to do fairly sharp ISH, especially in the current industry climate

 

[rollo]

Considering Norse are financially stressed and put themselves up for sale last week the thought of them and PIA coming to an arrangement looks like a marriage made in hell and by the way to complicate things Norse don't actually own any aircraft they are all leased.

I think PIA will return to BHX at some point but when and how is anyone's guess

 

[Ray Finkle]

I think PIA will return to BHX at some point but when and how is anyone's guess

Apparently they are 'expected to return' but I really wouldn't like to even guess as to when.

 

[Ashley]

PIA invites tenders from in-flight catering service providers.
1400 meals per week operating 2 weekly Boeing 777 flights.

 

[rollo]

The latest rumours re the return in December at 2weekly have been around for a while including being operated by Norse which would be interesting to have a route operated by two basket cases but a PIA 777 is best option in my view as PIA can overly Russian airspace.

Place your bets on it actually happening.

 

[BLB777]

The latest rumours re the return in December at 2weekly have been around for a while including being operated by Norse which would be interesting to have a route operated by two basket cases but a PIA 777 is best option in my view as PIA can overly Russian airspace.

Place your bets on it actually happening.

There is a lot of traction around these 'rumours' so expect some form of annoucement soon. If successful Norse B787's will most likely be used until more B777s of PIA are freed up.
Good news none the less, over 100K pax (p2p) travelled between BHX and ISB last year so there is clearly a lot of demand for the route. Qatar appears to be the one who has benefitted most from PIA not serving, so it will be interesting to see how they respond.

The biggest markets between BHX-Pakistan

ISB-BHX 105K P2P
LHE-BHX 30K P2P
KHI BHX 13K P2P
SKT-BHX 4K P2P

 

[Birmingham Aviation]

There is a lot of traction around these 'rumours' so expect some form of annoucement soon. If successful Norse B787's will most likely be used until more B777s of PIA are freed up.
Good news none the less, over 100K pax (p2p) travelled between BHX and ISB last year so there is clearly a lot of demand for the route. Qatar appears to be the one who has benefitted most from PIA not serving, so it will be interesting to see how they respond.

The biggest markets between BHX-Pakistan

ISB-BHX 105K P2P
LHE-BHX 30K P2P
KHI BHX 13K P2P
SKT-BHX 4K P2P

Could easily get 5-6 weekly Islamabad and 2 weekly Lahore

 

[BLB777]

Could easily get 5-6 weekly Islamabad and 2 weekly Lahore

3 weekly ISB 1 weekly LHE is more sustainable, not everyone will automatically switch to a direct route, as they will prefer the likes of QR and TK, but some will of course. Will probably start at 2 weekly then potentially increase from there to a maximum of 4 weekly.

There will also naturally be some leakage, so expect for numbers to increase with the introduction of a direct service. Will be interesting to see how the numbers compare next year to this year after a direct service has commenced.