The three private airlines will make presentations sometime next month (November) at the Ministry of Defence (MoD), Islamabad on the state of their preparedness to utilise the additional foreign routes/frequencies, granted to them by the MoD in July.
According to a highly placed official source, the business plane/fleet plane, which would be unfolded by these airlines, would enable MoD and the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) officials to assess the capability and capacity of these carriers in undertaking the task. The Ministry of Defence has granted required permission.
"It is now up to the private airlines to cash on the opportunity they were looking for, which had been denied to them in the past," the source said.
"Our only concern is that right type of aircraft is used and passenger comfort is kept upper most in the mind of operators," he said.
When asked how he looked at the situation right now, he said except for Airblue, the other two airlines ie, Aero Asia and Shaheen Air International are no where close to utilising the additional routes/frequencies.
Airblue has shown lot of grit and determination during its one year of operations and has maintained a good record, equipment wise and in looking after passenger comfort.
He said that on the basis of their existing narrow body fleet, none of the three private airlines are in a position to fly direct to London from Karachi or Islamabad. Airblue is the only carrier, which has signed an agreement with Airbus for wide-body A330-200.
It had also announced that it would be ready to fly four times a week to London and four times a week to Manchester from November 1st but the target seemed to be too ambitious and they may not be able to meet the deadline because of the logistics involved in starting operations to United Kingdom.
Private airlines may not be able to start operations to UK, for which they have been granted permission, till such time they added wide body aircraft to their fleet. The obvious impediment in the way of modernising the fleet appears to be availability of funds, which the private carriers appear to be finding difficult to raise.
Even if funds are generated, the new generation wide body aircraft are not readily available, the source said. This may compound their problems and they may not be able to start operations to UK for quite sometime, the source added.
The situation as it exists today would help national carrier Pakistan International Airlines in not only increasing its market share further but also consolidating its position on international sectors. It would feel comfortable with three Boeing 777-200ER already flying and two Boeing 777-200LR joining its fleet early next year and another three Boeing 777-200ER by the year 2008.
The idea behind allowing additional international frequencies/routes to private airlines in the country was to give some competition to PIA and ensure best return to the passenger in the shape of services and comfort for which he has paid. But it appears that PIA would continue to enjoy its state of monopoly till private airlines come of age. They will have to put their best foot forward to dethrone PIA and make in-roads in its domain. This could be achieved only by providing comfortable aircraft and better service to the travelling public.
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