Pakistan International Airline is aiming to resume its Barcelona,
Bangkok and Germany routes, while upgrading its network to Dubai and Saudi
Arabia, it has been learned.
National Career, that is working on reestablishing its footprint in lost
routes, is planning to add more planes to the fleet by year end to resume
at least its Germany route with-in next few months.
For
the purpose, PIA will induct its third A330 airliner around January next year
to operate a 3 weekly flights to New York-JFK via Leipzig/Halle
airport, Germany, instead of the current Manchester, UK stop-over.
Bernd
Hildenbrand, the CEO of PIA, in an interview with an online news agency
confirmed that Pakistan International Airline will resume its long-lost
Germany route through Leipzig for New York flights.
The
CEO said that this is mainly due to the fact that Manchester is an expensive
airport and this is why they are preferring Leipzig for stop-over for flights
to FJK. He said that this new route could be operational from January 1st,
2017.
It
maybe recalled that Airlines from Pakistan are not allowed to operate
directly to US. All Pakistani airlines must land somewhere else and do all
safety and security re-checks (for passengers and cargo) before heading
to any US airport.
Bernd
Hildenbrand further confirmed that PIA is aiming to have 60 aircraft by
2020 and more than 100 by 2025.
The
CEO of PIA said that company is renegotiating
the order of five 777s in favor of eight 787s. He said that
777s could be an over capacity aircraft for PIA while 787s could be more
cost efficient airliner in current situations.
However,
Boeing is yet to confirm the deal and also if 787s would be able to
operate non-stop from Pakistan to Toronto or not.
It
must be mentioned here that PIA has regained its 40% market share for domestic
traffic to 56% during past few months only.
