IQBAL MIRZA
KARACHI: Lo and behold! National carrier Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has suspended flights to two most lucrative stations in its network, ie, Frankfurt and Amsterdam during the winter season this year. Both these stations have not been included in the winter schedule announced by the airline. Last PIA flight from Frankfurt landed at Islamabad this morning, a PIA source told Business Recorder here on Saturday.
Aviation experts here are surprised over the decision to suspend one of the most busiest, profitable and lucrative destinations Frankfurt and Amsterdam. “PIA will lose its landing rights if the suspension is lingered on, resulting in huge loss of ethnic traffic.”
Only a few weeks back the Pakistani settlers had requested PIA management to increase the flight frequency to Frankfurt from twice a week to daily basis gradually to accommodate a larger number of passengers residing around the area, a source in the airline said.
Only proper upkeep of fleet, targeted marketing in Pakistani diaspora, flight schedule according to passenger’s convenience and some image building is all what was needed instead of closing down these sectors for fear of unknown or advice of inefficient staff who has climbed the ladder backed by nepotism and corruption. They warned PIA management, not to surrender its historic rights of operations to these revenue generating destinations as they will lose the opportunity forever if it is not enhanced now when the managements of these airports are still sympathetic towards the airline. These suggestions should be taken seriously as competing airlines namely Etihad Airways and Air Blue, it is believed, are working to get the profitable route as soon as PIA surrenders them.
Passengers seat booking requests have been on the rise in last six months despite reports of suspension of flights, as compared to the same period of last year as the number of passengers and revenues of PIA have increased to more than 50 percent on Islamabad-Frankfurt route.
Seat reservations are recorded 100 percent on Frankfurt-Islamabad flights, while passenger demands are beyond the capacity of PIA flights due to limited number of frequency. But if the flights frequency could be increased as per demand, a good number of passengers could be provided services by PIA on weekly basis.
Aviation experts said that majority of passengers on business or leisure trips from southern part, ie, Karachi, upto Sukkur and Quetta opt for Middle East carriers and travel via Dubai, Sharjah, Muscat, Abu Dhabi, etc. This traffic could easily be attracted by offering swift connection to Lahore and Islamabad.
They are of the opinion that instead of showing some marketing skill (which they lack due to incompetence and sifarish culture) the marketing department gurus of PIA advise the management the easiest solution, “shut down operation it will save money.” What they fail to realise is that foreign carriers make this decision after thorough exercise and calculations.
Officials in PIA said that the management should exploit all available opportunities of the profitable route of Frankfurt for better business development and revenue earning instead of leaving options for competing airlines, which have been planning to enhance their flight operation from Frankfurt to South Asia.
The high demand on Frankfurt flight is obvious because huge population of Pakistanis, Afghans and South Asians are living in Germany with limited options of travelling by air to their homeland.
There are more than 80,000 Pakistanis living in Germany whereas the number of Afghans and Bangladeshis are around 130,000 and 60,000 respectively who are residing in Germany, as per latest estimates of some independent rights groups.
Officials suggested that PIA management should make viable commercial benefits of all its flights through streamlining its operations at local and international level. In this regard, they said, Islamabad-Frankfurt flight should be extended to Lahore and Karachi with gradual increase in frequency after approval of concerned authorities.
By extending destinations to Karachi and Lahore, Frankfurt based flights could also facilitate passengers travel to Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Hong Kong who could avail connecting flights to reach their homelands.
In addition to foreign nationals of different Asian countries, a section of business class passengers could be provided direct flight service from Karachi and Lahore, hence local and regional countries market could be tapped fully.
Besides the number of passengers from Amsterdam could also be facilitated and provided travelling option by enhancing existing number of flights to Frankfurt from Pakistan via Amsterdam and other cities. Officials said that suggested routes of the Frankfurt flights could enhance cargo services of the airlines, which increases the business of the airline manifold on the specific route.
If there is fleet constraint, the schedule could be readjusted by sharing Frankfurt flights with New York instead of Manchester which will also be able to avail the opportunity of 5th freedom, they further suggested to PIA management. Officials said that PIA should also enhance the quality of the services on all international and domestic flights particularly on Frankfurt flights having huge potential of drawing revenues. Also, the maintenance of aircraft and their availability should be ensured on priority basis to maintain punctuality.
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