Shaheen Air
 

This time confirmed NL will be starting twice weekly service each Islamabad-Leeda/Bradford and Islamabad-Luton (Karachi and Lahore too later) from 7 February with A310 leased from Saga Airlines(Turkey).

Also plan Faisalabad-Glasgow from third quarter 2008 and Stansted from Islamabad, Karachi and Lahore in 2009.

Nothing on their website as far as I can see regarding LTN, only LBA.

Is this the same Shaheen Airways that were flying wetleased Ukrainian YAK 42Ds as recently as 2002?

Never again.

Well. they only have one serviceable A310 at the moment, TC-SGC, MSN 519, first flight 20JUL89.
Previous owners include:
.
28/11/1989 Kenya Airways 5Y-BFT lsd ILFC
01/02/2002 Air India VT-EVI
15/06/2005 Air Algerie TC-SGC Operated by Saga
17/12/2005 Mahan Air TC-SGC lsd from SAGA
21/10/2006 Saga Airlines TC-SGC
.
Stoney

I hear it is at Islamabad at present being prepared for service.

Flights into LBA are on a Thursday and Sunday, NL803 inbound, arriving at 20:30.

Would they need to do some crew training runs into LBA before starting in service??

Luton schedule:

TUE & SAT

ISB 16:30 - LTN 20:00
LTN 22:30 - ISB 11:15

shaheen air
 

The way theyre going i dont see them being around for long, very similiar marketing strategies to UKIA, agents required to pay substantial upfront fee's, not a normal procedure, I hear from some asian travel agents:=

ISB-LTN to start from 30 March, however I too feel none of these not-so-big UK airport international links to Asia will last regardless of whoever starts them.

What rubbish newscaster

2001 census, I am assuming little variation from these figures:

20% of the UK Pakistani population live in West Yorkshire, with particular concentrations in Bradford and Dewsbury. Closest airport Leeds Bradford obviously. This does not take into account the 18% over and above this figure who live in the Greater Manchester area with particular concentration in Oldham, Ashton and Rochdale, all within the extended catchment area of LBA

19% live in Greater London and the tri counties, with concentration in Luton and the nortern suburbs of London. Also in addition 23% live in the West and East Midlands with high concentration in Leicester and Coventry. All of which either in the core or extended catchment area of Luton Airport.

If Shaheen fail (or any other airline) to capitalise on the largest Pakistani catchment areas in the UK, then it is due to a failure of business model of the airline concerned, namely price or how the product has been placed. It has nothing to do with the fact they are "not so big" airports.

Well why didnt BMI or BMed show any interest in launching services form these lucrative markets, why are only second or third tier or should I say rate airlines targetting them, not even PIA has been intersted in flying to anyof these money making destinations, and by not-so-big I meant in comparison to main destinations London, Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow.

And Shaheen Foundation only have 1% percent stake in the airline while 99% belongs to new owners.

And there I was thinking that Luton was a London Airport.

newscaster - since when have bmi or BMed shown an interest in serving the UK - Pakistan market from any airport? isn't that like saying why haven't Ryanair or Easyjet not served them - perhaps it's not in their stategic business model for them!

As for PIA they serve the major airport in each of these regions due to the size of the core and extended catchment areas. Each of these catchments contain or overlap with areas of large Pakistani population. Why would PIA operate into additional airports within these catchment areas when there is no competition? Shaheen (or whoever else may come along at some point) have perhaps identified as part of their business model that they can directly serve these communites from alternative airports in the region without going head to head with PIA on the same city pair. Should Shaheen find a niche market, then you may see PIA change the way it operates in his market. Afterall, PIA have dropped their lead in price from MAN by £120, ironically a few days after the Shaheen announcement. One presumes they see this move by Shaheen as a threat to markets it believed it had control of.

I'm not saying Shaheen will be successful or not, that will be up to how well they place their product, how financiall secure they are, and how competition reacts. My point, newscaster, is that your comments show you have a lack of understanding of geographic and population demographics of the UK in relation to this subject. Either that, or you have a vested interest (I also note your comments on the UKIA thread) to see such ventures fail.

Actually BombardierCR7, you are very wrong on that front. Newscaster is bang on! It was known internally that BMED's next destination was to be Lahore, as an extension of the Yerevan route. Lahore is, in fact still on BMI's potentials list.

Regards

Mike

Aeulad I think you have missed my point and the nature of newscasters comments. It maybe true, but Bmi/BMed are predominately centred around LHR for it's mid/long haul aspirations, and if you say they may start Lahore, then it is an extention of an existing route from LHR, not the regions which is the point of my post and the discussion at hand - specifically the use of alternative regional departure airports to the usual suspects within the catchment areas of large UK based Pakistani communities.

Asia/Regions
 

I think if you look at a lot of the traffic it is visiting freinds and relatives especially from the regions, that is why the big boys are not that interested. As stated in a previous post the main areas are well covered by PIA on their existing flights and main carriers via hubs.

Shaheen and UKIA (if they survive) will be VFR with low profit margins if any.


Centre cities

Shaheen to Lohore
 

I'm new to the forum.

are they still planning to fly to Lohore from Leeds Bradford this year or next year.

Planning, yes...actually operating....different story.:eek:

wheres the advert for the luton service?

LTN planned for March 30 but not confirmed.

I think only a solid player like BMI might be able to stand against PIA. In recent times we have seen SWEFLY and now UKIA(and offcourse poor management in this case) gone bust for not being able to cope against PIA and its price drops. I wish the best of luck to Shaheen however given their poor cabin service/ bad punctuality and poor aircrafts, I do not see them lasting for too long against PIA.
Lets just hope for some more direct flights to Pakistan especially to Lahore. Its a shame to see a nice airport like LHE to be not busy at all. Does anyone know anything about Aeroasia's plans?