I have heard that PIA have leased a Turkish registered A310 (not Turkish Airlines) to do the BHX flights until further notice.

Interesting article

http://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?C...-77c91768d2f7&

According to the PIA flt crew they are taking up options on 4 777s. AP-BHX is on a 10 year lease. The next -300ER is due for delivery next January.

PIA have reduced their planned MAN operation from 27 to 12 flts/week.

Looks like the message is getting through too as many of the ongoing problems at last are being addressed.

Does nobody have any news on the GLA flights yet and what PIA are doing about them?

XSB

GLA flights operating twice weekly as before but with slightly different timings and now operated with 777's. ( deps Wed and Fri )

743's & 310's
 

Just as BHX gets the 777 scheduled there are rumours of the EU easing
the ban on the 743 & 310.

Quote taken from another forum: -

"Five 747s and six 310s will be cleared, FRA will be online by mid july".

There was a link to a news article but when I checked it went on about
Indonesia :confused:

The 747s coming back has been around for quite a while. I'll believe it when I see it - Will be good to see them back at Manchester though.

Sam

Restrictions
 

Pete

"Just as BHX gets the 777 scheduled there are rumours of the EU easing
the ban on the 743 & 310"


Can you give me some background on this ban please - I thought there was technical (runway length) reasons for not using 747's at BHX ?

BHX
 

CVTDog

Sorry for the confusion, I was referring to the general restriction imposed by the EU due maintenance standards on the 74M, 743 & 310.

There is no other restriction in force other than the usual restricted payload one for the 747 at BHX. PIA in fact started with the 747 but of
course it only went to Copenhagen as first port of call. I am not sure of all the technical issues surrounding the 747 at BHX but as far as I know PIA have never flown them direct or have or had any intention to do so.

Also the change to the 777 is not imposed so I am told and will remain
after the EU ban is lifted on the 310 if the quote in one paper (today) is correct.

The intention is three a week to start, four in October and 5 a week by Jan 08 but the timetable does not show all of this as yet.

Pete

Moscow, Athens, Colombo and Singapore have been suspended, most foreign F/A's to be sacked.

EU allow three 747-300, two 747-200M and six A310-300 to fly to Europe from July 14th.

PIA off the EU blacklist
 

The latest revision of the EU blacklist sees operational restrictions on Pakistan International lifted, as well as those on Blue Wing of Surinam.

They say nice things about TAAG Angola and Indonesia but are not ready to lift any bans yet.

Just to clarify...only PIA's A310s and 747s were on the list.

Topic title need sto be chnaged to Airlines from Airways.

PIA evaluating Newcastle or East Midlands according to a PIA staffer at LHR.

PIA to sell its JFK, Chicago slots to Turkish Airways
 

Pakistan International Airlines is selling its take-off and landing slots at John F. Kennedy Airport New York and O’Hare International Airport Chicago completely to the Turkish Airways (TA), The News has learnt.

A top PIA official on condition of anonymity confided to this correspondent, saying that in addition to the recent MoU signed by PIA with TA which dents PIA’s business in more than one way, PIA is selling its take-off and landing slots at New York and Chicago completely to the TA. The deal is under wraps for now and also means that in case PIA wants to buy back these slots it would need to pay many times the amount paid to the TA, the official added. The PIA board of directors however is yet to be taken into confidence on the selling of slots issue.

This deal wont through major objection from PIA staff including pilots and Pak CAA, also Turkey not happy with negative response, infact they are shocked at the reaction, according to some Turk papers quoting TK officials.

IF it goes through then:

PK Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Barcelona and Milan services will also be dropped, there are rumors of Birmingham and Leeds going as well, possibly Paris too. To be resumed Houston and possibly Male/Maldives and new destination to start Sydney.

TK will end their new Dhaka route and begin c/s on PK to there plus Mumbai, Kathmandu, Male and Colombo, they will also launch Lahore.

I too have seen this rumour, although it was more a near pull-out of Europe, with only four routes continuing. Everything else is supposedly going via Istanbul with Turkish Airlines.

i dont think pia will pull out of birmingham and leeds because thay are doing very well and very profitable

I wouldn't be too sure Chitty, Leeds is certainly profitable but is only 2 flights a week having reduced from 3 due to noise issues when the flight is late. Sadly this is more often than not these days.

LBA/BHX can be moved to MAN without too many problems other than upsetting the local Pakistani populations. They have become used to being able to fly from their local airport.

It could be a mistake however, LBA was only started by PIA after another airline set up and showed PIA where most of its' MAN pax were coming from! If they pull LBA and BHX then local travel agents may look to find an alternate airline to continue the route.

Just a thought.....

I fully expect PK at LBA to be a dim and distant memory in about 6 -12months. The specifics of LBA profitibility are very much in question along with rest of their network. The protesteth -too much quotes from the UK manager will come back to haunt....

I dont think you can compare leeds PIA service with that of bhx since the BHX operation is twice the size and uses larger aircraft. Birmingham has one of the largest pakistani communities in europe and has a larger population than manchester and Leeds.. So I dont think PIA will be in a hurry to drope the route ,not saying that it could not happen.From what i understand bhk-ISB atracts 7000-9000 monthly and has almost the same amount of flights than the Man operation.There has being no official word from PIA about this deal with turkish airlines on its webside. It just media speculation. Time will tell!