Airblue celebrates its first anniversary

Airblue, a new private carrier entering the aviation industry in Pakistan held a colourful programme at the lush green lawns of Garrison Country Club here on Monday night, to celebrate its first anniversary, where performance awards were also given to the staff and travel agents to acknowledge their services for progress of the airline.
The event was attended by a large number of people from different walks of life including travel agents, tour operators, officials of Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and media people.
Speaking on the occasion, Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Airblue, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, said that it was the first private airline to introduce e-ticketing in the country's aviation industry. 'We have latest and state-of-the-art equipment to handle the operation of the airline in a sophisticated way', he said. A salient feature of the airline was that all its employees including pilots were local people, he added.
According to him, Airblue, directly employ 300 people, while indirectly created 5000 jobs. Our focus is on requiring latest technology and providing value added services to our passengers.
Abbasi maintained that Airblue has made its maiden flight on 18th June 2004, with A-320 aircraft from Karachi to Islamabad and now was about to expand its frequency of flight operation. He claimed that Airblue was No I carrier in term of revenue and number of passengers as well as its dynamic fare structure. After Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad, we are also launching flights for Nawabshah, Peshawar and Quetta. Airblue's latest and comfortable aircraft were carrying approximately 50,000 passengers every month, which reflect people's trust in the service of the airline, he added.
He further said that such events were being held at each station of the airline in the country, to mark its first anniversary where prizes worth of Rs 10 million will be given to the participants through lucky draws.
Travel agents who received awards included Iqbal Janani of American Express, Zaheer Khan of Bokhari Travels, Hamad Zia of Good Luck Travels, Amir Zafar of Agency Travels and Amir Kayani of Proficient Travels.
Awards were also given to Mrs Shamim Awan of CAA and Syed Nasir Ali of air blue. The employees of air blue Rina Butt, Tayyaba Baig, Murad Ali Raza and Mustansar Ensari also received performance awards.
Earlier, District Sales Manager of air blue Kalbe Irtiza in his welcome address highlighted achievements and one year performance of the carrier.