Pakistan routes news and analysis: Gulf Air, Pakistan International Airlines, and Turkish Airlines

by Vinay Bhaskara

Several pieces of routes news from Pakistan emerged over the past week, and Bangalore Aviation has prepared a summary of these changes

Gulf Air increases frequency to Pakistan

• Bahrain based  Gulf Air has added 7 new weekly frequencies on its offering to Pakistan, from mid-December 2013, bringing its total Pakistani operation to 21 flights per week to four destinations. A summary of the changes is shown below
• Bahrain - Islamabad increases from 2x weekly to 3x weekly Airbus A330-200
• Bahrain - Karachi increases from daily to 10x weekly Airbus A320
• Bahrain - Lahore increases from 3x weekly to 4x weekly A330-200
• Bahrain - Peshawar increases from 2x weekly to 4x weekly, split as 2x weekly Airbus A321, 1x weekly A330-200, and 1x weekly A320

Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) increases service to Manchester/Toronto from November 2013

• Total frequency to Toronto increases to 4x weekly with addition of second weekly Karachi - Lahore - Toronto flights using Boeing 777-200LR equipment
• Total frequency to Manchester increases to 6x weekly with addition of third weekly Islamabad - Manchester on Boeing 777-200ER equipment
• Pakistan International Airlines continues to persist in operating a potpourri of routings for its intercontinental flights, by having low frequencies from each of Karachi, Islamabad, Lahore, and even Peshawar. This is certainly not unprecedented; Saudia has a similar setup out of Riyadh, Jeddah, and Dammam. But it would likely be more efficient for PIA to choose just one airport to serve as its gateway for long haul flights; either Karachi, which has the highest yielding traffic, or Islamabad, which has the highest volume of passengers. 

Turkish Airlines switches to 737-900ER

• Istanbul based Turkish Airlines is planning on switching aircraft for some of its flights to Pakistan, replacing the Boeing 737-800 with the Boeing 737-900ER
• Interestingly, the decision to replace the 737-800 with the 737-900ER actually represents a downgrade in capacity, as the 737-800s are configured with 165 seats (12Y+ / 153Y), while the 737-900ERs are configured for 151 seats (16C / 135Y) including a true regional business class product. This is an indication that Turkish Airlines is seeing strong premium demand on its Pakistani routes, but volumes are a bit soft (understandable given the residual weakness in the Pakistani economy)
• The routes affected are:
• All 4x weekly flights to Karachi, Pakistan's business capital
• One of 3x weekly flights to Islamabad, Pakistan's political capital

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127 feared dead as Bhoja Airlines Boeing 737 crashes near Islamabad Pakistan

All 127 people, 118 passengers and nine crew, on board a Bhoja Air flight are feared dead in a crash near the national capital of Islamabad in Pakistan. Bhoja flight B4-213 had departed from the commercial capital of Pakistan, Karachi.

There was severe weather in the area of the crash. The aircraft last made contact around 18:20 local (13:20Z) and reportedly crashed at 18:40 local in a residential area around Hussain Abad village near Rawalpindi, 5nm from Islamabad airport

Rescue teams have been dispatched to the scene.

Bhoja Air has commenced operations just a few days ago. The aircraft, The aircraft was Boeing 737-236 advanced, registration AP-BKD, line number 635, was built in 1980, had its first flight on February 13, 1980. The aircraft was delivered to British Airways as G-BGDD on February 23, 1980. It was delivered to Bhoja Air, February 24, 2012.

This is the second crash in less than two years. In July 2010, an Airbus A321 operated by Airblue crashed into hills overlooking Islamabad, killing 152 people on board.

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Singapore Airlines increases frequency to Mumbai and Delhi

With the global economy increasing in select geographies, Singapore Airlines (SIA) is making changes to its route network in the coming months.

Frequency to Mumbai and Delhi will meanwhile be increased from March and June 2010, respectively. Flights will be operated twice-daily to both Indian cities, up from the existing 11-times-weekly.

Effective 18 December, the Singapore-Moscow-Houston flight frequency will increase to five per week from the current four.

From 19 January 2010, the non-stop Singapore-Newark flights will return to daily operations from the current five times a week.

Munich will be a new destination in the SIA network from end March 2010. Flights will operate five times per week on a Singapore-Munich-Manchester routing.

Also from end March 2010, Colombo and Dhaka will each be served daily, up from five flights a week.

Services to Seoul will increase from June 2010; to 18 weekly from the current 14 weekly, one of which carries on to San Francisco.

From end October 2010, the carrier will commence twice daily operations to Tokyo Haneda airport, complementing the existing twice daily flights to Tokyo Narita, one of which continues on to Los Angeles.

The airline is suspending operations to Karachi and Lahore, Pakistan and Nanjing, China. The last Singapore-Karachi-Lahore service will be operated on 17 February 2010 while the last Singapore-Nanjing service will be operated on 26 March 2010.

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