PIA to resume flights to Dubai from Faisalabad and Multan

[Kailash Kumar]

PIA to resume flights to Dubai from Faisalabad

October 23, 2019

KARACHI:

Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) is going to resume flights on the Faisalabad-Dubai and Multan-Dubai routes by the end of current month.

“Flights on these routes had been halted seven to eight years ago,” said a PIA official while talking to The Express Tribune.

The airline had stopped operating on the two routes because of two reasons. One, Emirates airline of the UAE had been locked in a tough competition with PIA by operating direct flights on these routes while PIA flew passengers via Karachi which was a nuisance for them. Second, the national flag carrier had not enough aircraft to continue flying on these routes.

Earlier, PIA shared plans to induct two new aircraft into its fleet in the days to come. It plans to add one aircraft in the last week of October and the other by mid-November.

Both will be narrow-body aircraft with seating capacity for around 160 passengers.

Emirates has been facilitating passengers who want to travel further from Dubai to other destinations, hence it is planning its routes accordingly.

Passengers from these two cities of Pakistan – Faisalabad and Multan – mostly travel to Dubai as their final destination and seldom travel any further, hence, PIA has decided to compete on these routes again.

First direct flight will depart from Faisalabad to Dubai on October 31. Sources in PIA said on Tuesday the airline had started selling tickets for the first flight and aimed to facilitate over 100 passengers.

PIA plans to run two direct flights on the Faisalabad-Dubai route every week ie on Thursday and Saturday.

The national flag carrier is resuming flights on the discontinued routes and in the past few days it has resumed or introduced dozens of routes for the Middle East, Europe and Far East.

The management of the airline, which has accumulated losses of around Rs400 billion, has claimed that PIA has turned profitable at the operational level.

https://tribune.com.pk/story/2085224/2-pia-resume-flights-dubai-faisalabad/

 

[FuturePAF]

Welcome News. Gives more options to passengers traveling from other locations to Dubai as well, and ultimately onwards to these two cities. Any plans on working with Emirates to allow passengers to book with either airlines and make the journey as seamless as possible. I guess we will find out how it will workout in the weeks to come. PIA should also look at flying from these smaller Pakistani cities to Turkey and Manchester in England, and allowing Turkish airlines and airlines serving the UK to complete the rest of the journey.

PIA needs a plan to win back overseas Pakistanis, and playing Gulf carriers, Turkish Airlines, and European Airlines off of each other may allow them to better compete.

 

[Syed1.]

Excellent news.... I always failed to understand why PIA international flights only originate from KHI, LHR, ISL. This might work for a small country, but we are 220 million people. The greater segment of population PIA can target the greater their revenues will be.

 

[B.K.N]

PIA should also look at flying from these smaller Pakistani cities to Turkey and Manchester in England,

These are not small cities Faisalabad is third largest city of Pakistan after Karachi and Lahore
Faisalabad district's population is 7.8 million and population of Multan district is 4.7 million

 

[FuturePAF]

These are not small cities Faisalabad is third largest city of Pakistan after Karachi and Lahore
Faisalabad district's population is 7.8 million and population of Multan district is 4.7 million

Relatively speaking "Smaller", but in the grand scheme of things you are right, 7.8 million and 4.7 million are large enough cities that they should be looked upon as large cities. I personally fly to Multan, and would love to fly PIA if they offered the service from Dubai, Turkey, or the UK. In fact I wish they could do a direct New York - Multan Route, but I'll take one of these alternative connections if the trip is at least as "seamless" as the current Emirates/Fly Dubai setup.

I hope PIA starts to offer flights to Faisalabad and Multan from the UK, and then Pakistanis in North America can fly to UK airports from whatever carrier, and connect with a PIA flight, in a city like Manchester, where a decent number of Pakistanis live.

 

[Ultima Thule]

why PIA closed its routes in Eastern USA like JFK/Dallas/Chicago there are lots of Pakistani here, I am living at Maryland, USA there are lots Pakistani here in Maryland (adjacent to IAD/Dallas) who want to give the benefits of our national airline

 

[FuturePAF]

why PIA closed its routes in Eastern USA like JFK/Dallas/Chicago there are lots of Pakistani here, I am living at Maryland, USA there are lots Pakistani here in Maryland (adjacent to IAD/Dallas) who want to give the benefits of our national airline

Probably not economically feasible the way PIA was being run those days. Under new management, PIA should resume flights to the US, but offer direct fights to cities like Faisalabad and Multan as well. A one flight option would make them super competitive. For Example, flying on a gulf carrier, and then flying all the way back to Peshawar seems like a lot of time wasted.

That is why, if PIA flys flights to all its cities to the UK, and has UK-Us based airlines fly to Manchester, it would optimize seats filled, and destinations covered.

Maryland to Manchester, and then a connection to Quetta (for example), after a short layover may be economical, and if they offer multiple flights a day, you can pick the cheapest flight between the US and UK for the connection.

Also we can buy A320s for a lot less then B777 or A350s, and use them for so many routes, rather than a few long haul flights.

 

[HAIDER]

PIA should take back all there routes , which were given by Nawaz and co. Everyone is sucking the blood of Pakistan. Time to stand up against these leeches.