JEDDAH, 29 December 2003 — Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), which is resuming its flights to South Asia on Thursday, will operate its first flight from Jeddah to Bombay via Karachi.
"The flight will mark the resumption of flights to the subcontinent after a two-year break," Saleem Nisar, PIA general manager for Saudi Arabia, said yesterday.
"We will be operating weekly 10 flights to the subcontinent - four to Delhi (two each via Karachi and Lahore), and two each to Bombay, Katmandu, Dhaka and Colombo," he told reporters after a formal announcement at a meeting of travel agents at La Sani Restaurant here. PIA's flights to the subcontinent remained suspended since Jan. 1, 2001.
Nisar said the Kingdom was the biggest market for PIA, especially for its expatriates from Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka. "The Indian market itself is a big market but we'll have to struggle a lot as there are a number of Gulf airlines operating to various Indian destinations aside from India's national carrier Air-India and Saudi Arabian Airlines (SAA)," he said.
"Basically, it all boils down to pricing. How aggressive you are in marketing your product is the key factor in the South Asian market," he said, adding that the South Asian destinations have always been a very prime market for PIA.
"We, however, hope to attract Indian passengers, especially those who would wish to break their journey in Pakistan to meet their relatives. We hope to facilitate their visa requirements for the purpose. We'll charge $50 per head as the stopover charge for such passengers," he said.
"Our schedules to the subcontinent are convenient for travelers, except Dhaka where the connecting time exceeds three hours. We are looking into it and hope to tackle this issue," he said, adding that the airline had a 40 percent growth in the past couple of years and now with the resumption of flights to India and other parts of South Asia the growth was expected to reach 60 percent.
"Jeddah is the most difficult station in the PIA network, in fact, 20 times more challenging than many other stations because of the year-round Umrah and annual Haj season in which altogether 250,000 pilgrims are transported," said Nisar who has been here in his present capacity for over two years. He earlier served the airline for nine years in New York and five years in London.
He announced special introductory fares to several destinations including Bombay, Delhi, Dhaka, Colombo and Katmandu.
According to him, PIA has plans to add some destinations in countries in the Far East, including the Philippines, Singapore and Indonesia.
The airline has been operating a schedule of 25 flights a week, including 13 from Jeddah, and the rest from Dammam and Riyadh.
The airline had started operating its schedule of 321 Haj flights (10 to 12 flights a day) from Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar and Quetta to bring 110,000 pilgrims. SAA is transporting 10,000 other pilgrims from Pakistan. "Not a single incoming Haj flight is either canceled or delayed," he said. Pilgrims coming by the inaugural Haj flight on Friday night were given a welcome by Ambassador Adm. (Retd.) Abdul Aziz Mirza, aside from officials of the Pakistan Embassy and the Consulate General and PIA executives led by Nisar.
Aside from representatives of major travel agencies, top executives of PIA including Western Province Manager Imtiaz A. Bhutto, and assistant managers - Asim Baber and Tahir Hussain were present.
Asked to comment on PIA's fleet, he said the airline had leased two Boeing 747 and two Airbus aircraft to operate its Haj flights. We're getting the first three of eight B777s on order in January," he said.
PIA Dammam also held a function at Le Meridien Hotel, Alkhobar earlier yesterday to announce the resumption of its flights to South Asia in the presence of Nisar who launched a sales promotion campaign. Senior executives of leading travel agents in the Eastern Province were present.
