Airblue to be launched from Karachi on June 18

The nation's third private sector venture in civil aviation, the Airblue is all set to open its operations with six daily flights between Karachi-Lahore and Karachi Islamabad with turn-abouts after 35 minutes of ground time.
The airline has opened its office and business counters at the prestigious Pak-Saudi Towers on the Jinnah Avenue and has informed the travel agents it will accept reservations through the electronic medium.
The travellers themselves could also book their passage through their personal computers but obtain the "boarding card" using their credit cards or through their regular travel agents.
The schedule displayed on the website shows three flights from Karachi to Lahore and back. The same number of flights are between Karachi and Islamabad daily. It has a fleet of three latest Airbuses, A-320 offering its passengers a "world class in cabin service".
The International Air Travel Association (IATA) has allotted a two-alphabet denominator of ED. It has numbered its flights between Karachi and Islamabad in the 200 series, while those for Lahore are in the 400.
Price-wise the airline will not under-cut the other competitors in the field. However, it offers various percentages of discount through advance purchase of the seats.
On a seat bought three days in advance of the travel, it offers a discount of five percent on the normal fare. In case of advance purchase of seven days, the discount goes up to 10 per cent while for a boarding permission obtained 14 days before travel it could be 15 per cent.
Any purchases made through the airlines' website will earn a maximum discount of Rs 300. Similarly, discounts on all advance purchases for accompanying children and infants are available. The airlines also has a "night-coach" fare of Rs 2, 900.00 that according to the website has been shown against flight ED 207 of Saturdays and Sundays from Islamabad to Karachi.
As the universal telephone numbers advertised by the airlines earlier in the day were not available, no further explanation on this flight could be obtained from its executives. However, the night coach fare, according to the website, was adult fare without the fuel surcharge, taxes or airport fees.