Airblue, a private sector airline, will start international operation within two months and daily domestic flights between Islamabad and all provincial headquarters in three months. This was stated by the airline's Chief Operating Officer, Shahid Khaqaan Abbasi while talking to newsmen here at a function held in connection with the completion of one-year operation from Peshawar.
Chief Operating Officer, Peshawar, Captain Felix, and Manager, Peshawar, Abbas Raza Dar, were also present on the occasion.
Shahid said that the airline has already got the formal licence for launching international operations. However, he said, in the first instance the company would operate on Karachi-Dubai route and very shortly it would be extended to other international destinations.
He said that the current two weekly flights between Karachi and Peshawar would become daily flights.
Expressing concern over what he called unfair fare competition between the national flag carrier and private airlines, he urged the government to adopt sustainability in the fares. He said that cut in the fares by PIA had forced the private sector airlines to decrease their fares. He said that they cannot sell tickets at higher price than the national flag carrier.
"When I was heading PIA, we had made 170 percent increase in the fare of PIA, but still we (in PIA) were going in loss," he recalled.
He said that the market of PIA is growing at 20 percent and increase in the fares of the airline would not affect its business as majority of the people, and particularly overseas Pakistanis still, prefer national airline over private airlines for travel.
About privatisation of PIA, the former chairman said that when the government is selling profitable public sector entities like Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL), then why not they should sell PIA, a loss incurring institution.
About increase in Airblue's domestic operations, he said that the company has already given an offer to operate over all routes of Fokker service for replacement by Airbuses with the same fare. He said that in this connection, the company had held three meetings with the officials of Civil Aviation Authority and was awaiting its decision. He said that PIA is incurring a loss of Rs 300 million due to domestic Fokker services while the proposed purchase of the new planes would further increase it to Rs 550 million.
He said that due to Fokker service the PIA is incurring huge losses, "and we had offered the conversion of the Fokkers into a new generation fleet." The exercise would take a period of four months, he added.
About the current competition of decrease in the fares by PIA, he said that it could give short-term benefit, but not in the long run. He called for bringing sustainability in the fares of the airlines. He said that PIA is the dominant player of aviation and its actions directly affect the revenue and profit of private sector airlines.
For protection from the current competition, he said that Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has to play its role in it, saying that "in our neighbouring India private sector airlines share 70 percent of the domestic routes while at international level they have 20 percent share".
Replying to a question about possibility of merger of the private airlines in the country, Abbasi said: "The world has changed, and we also have to change."
Earlier, addressing a function held in connection with the completion of one year of operation, he appreciated the support given to the company from Peshawar. He said that the process of work in Airblue "is dynamic and we start from deep discount and go upward, selling costlier tickets than PIA".
He said that the company is making efforts to ensure punctuality of the flights schedule, saying that daily departure of the flight from Peshawar would be at 3:30 pm. He said that it is providing better services than other airlines in the country. He said that automatic wireless system is best in the world.
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