Pakistan's Airblue expands fleet with Airbus A320
13 November 2007

Airblue, Pakistan's fastest-growing airline has signed a firm contract for eight Airbus A320s, taking their total order for the A320 Family to 14. In late November 2006, Airblue signed firm contracts for six Airbus A320s.

The aircraft will be configured to seat 157 passengers in two classes. Airblue operates on domestic and regional routes to Dubai in addition to long haul services to the United Kingdom, and hopes to expand routes to additional international destinations.

Tariq Chaudhary, Airblue Chairman and CEO, said, “the choice of the Airbus A320 aircraft will allow Airblue to continue providing the high level of comfort and reliability expected by its customers; and the ability of the A320 to perform efficiently on a range of routes from 30 minute to over five hour flight time is crucial to Airblue’s business model of operating with a single aircraft type.”

“We are pleased Airblue is expanding with our A320 family aircraft. The decision reflects the technological superiority of the A320, the superior larger and more comfortable cabin for passenger comfort, increased storage for customer convenience. The aircraft has proven to have the lowest operating costs in its class”, said Tom Enders, Airbus President and CEO.

The A320 Family, which includes the A318, A319, A320 and A321, is recognised as the benchmark single-aisle aircraft family. Each aircraft features fly by wire controls and all share unique cockpit commonality across the range. Over 5,450 Airbus A320 Family have been sold and over 3200 delivered to more than 200 customers and operators worldwide, making it the worlds best selling commercial jetliner ever.

With proven reliability and extended servicing periods, the A320 Family offers the lowest operating costs of any single aisle aircraft. In addition, the latest new cabin design saves on weight and offers the passenger a quieter and roomier experience as well as significantly larger overhead stowage lockers.

Uniquely, the A320 Family offers a containerised cargo system, which is compatible with the worldwide standard wide-body system.

Airbus is an EADS company.

http://www.airbus.com/en/presscentre/press...rblue_a320.html

Airblue is doing some really good business. They're expanding rapidly. Good news and it'll stimulate competition. I'm really looking forward to flying with Airblue next year when I go to Pakistan. I've heard about their excellent service reputation.

Anyone know what their plans are for future routes?

They should really target the Manchester-Lahore market. That's massive. And it'd make things a hell of a lot more convenient for me.

I say we privatize PIA to them also, they can cut the jobs and do what is necessary to fix the problems (which can't be fixed do to issues within the government). We can have them pay when they reach profit (this is done by numerous nations around the world), and since PIA is on deficit right now, that will still help save money for the government. PIA has nearly 20,000 employees but needs only 12,000; if you cut those (who are mostly useless management positions) you can make a profit (along with better management as seen possible with Airblue).

^ Hmm, agree.

Caught a flight from Islamabad a couple of weeks ago. The number of people hanging around to check my boarding pass at every corner was ridiculous.

Security is one thing, but hassling the passengers is another. Honestly, there'd be a guy, then two metres later, another one, and then two metres later, another one still. Then at the gate, then just before boarding the plane.

What's the point?!

atleast they doent make you strip :D

aslong as they doent do that...im good..


btw...can i ask...you know soon as you enter the doors? remember back in days there where these checking bastards that wanted rishwat.


wtf happened to them?

edit....somethings seriusly wrong with quick edit....

PIA is a giant with a fleet of 40 odd aircraft....Airblue can not afford PIA. if they pay whn they are profitable...they will never payback the loss which would be caused to the taxpayer.

That doesn't make sense (what you said, in context), can you rephrase?

PIA is going in red. If im not getting it wrong PIA has one of the best facilities but they are rusting and not being managed properly....

Pakistani government can sell PIA to air blue on loan basis in which air blue will repay loan over certain period of time but ti would take over PIA management.... This would help as no more money will flow from the Ministry of Finance ot fund PIA losses but also we can have bright future for PIA.

That is what I am saying. Airblue can pay when it makes the profit, which would occur soon, after they fire the useless workers (the extra in management), and begin to manage more efficiently. Airblue will get a jump start, and the government won't have to pay anymore to make up for PIA's deficit (it would also make money off the privatization).

Anyone know what their plans are for future routes?

Arslan .. the Khaleej times editorial covers majority of the questions which you & other members have made :-

http://www.khaleejtimes.ae/DisplayArticleN...siness&col=

Airblue signs over $500m agreement for eight A320s
BY MUZAFFAR RIZVI
14 November 2007

DUBAI — Airblue, Pakistan’s fastest growing private airline, yesterday signed a firm contract worth over $500 million for eight Airbus A320s, taking their total order for the A320 family to 14.

The delivery of planes is expected to start in July 2009.

Talking to Khaleej Times after signing the contract at Dubai Airshow, Chief Operating Officer of Airblue Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said the airline is investing over one billion dollars on modern planes to expand its domestic and international network.

“We are also evaluating proposals to acquire A350 and 787 Dreamliners for long-haul international routes,” he said.

“We will acquire 4-8 modern planes (A350/787) for long routes depending on the market situation,” he said.

Airblue, which started operations in 2004, is one of the country’s two private domestic carriers. At present, it flies to seven Pakistani cities, as well as three flights to Dubai in the UAE and Manchester in Britain. The airline currently operates six A320s.

“We are planning to add one more flight for Dubai from Lahore due to high demand on this sector,” Abbasi said adding that the airline will also start service for Muscat and Kuwait after the acquisition of new planes.

“The airline is also interested in acquiring three more aircraft on lease by June next year to expand its international network,” he said. “We have serious plans to launch new services for London, Oslo, Bangkok and Lualalumpur in days to come,” he added.

The airline has good prospects for growth in Europe and the Middle East, Abbasi said.

In reply to a question he said, Airblue will be interested in PIA privatisation in case the Government of Pakistan decides to restrict the competition to domestic carriers.

“It would be hard to compete with international airlines for PIA,” he opined.

He said Pakistan aviation market has potential to grow more.

“Pakistan market still needs 80-100 aircraft to meet surging air traffic growth on domestic and international routes,” he said.

Tom Enders, Airbus President and CEO, said: “We are pleased Airblue is expanding with our A320 family aircraft.”

John Leahy of Airbus also hailed the agreement and expressed his hope that Airbus relationship with Airblue will also continue in future.

“There is impressive traffic growth in Pakistan and I hope our relationship with Airblue will further strengthen in future,” he added.

the tax payer will loose billions of dollers of assetts...and get paid zilch all....and by the time they start getting paid....the value of money to the agreement would take place, would be far less for a airline that big..

or they can get better management staff.

Current i think PIA is abt Rs 23 Billion in red.... It would be great gift to the nation to sell it



Chances of that happening= 0

When it is owned by government only currpt officals will be given the management and they will screw ti up as is the case. however, private companies have interest of their shareholders at stake thus they perform other wise the managments gets the boot on its A$$...

PIA can not move forward while undergovernment....

This Tax payer will loose yadi yadi yood, only works in the western counteries. right now money that could be used for developement projects is being used to run this bus route called PIA. Keeping PIA will not get anything to tax payer, its a luxury for our ruling class who travel Islamabad to Karachi for dinner

When it is owned by government only currpt officals will be given the management and they will screw ti up as is the case. however, private companies have interest of their shareholders at stake thus they perform other wise the managments gets the boot on its A$$...

PIA can not move forward while undergovernment....

1Pakistani, while there was a blocking of employment by the present govt. i know under BB & NS thousands of people got employed in PIA on bogus degrees. The idea was to work in PIA for 3 to 5 years and go overseas on ID100 or ID90 tickets, in this way the host country gives the employee a visa immediately.

The problem in PIA is that from top to bottom there is corruption, nobody can change the setup of PIA and even a FREE sale of PIA to private sector would be a gift to the nation.

However, due to this sale don't expect the local sector to be cheaper, as PIA has been subsidising lots of domestic sectors with very low yield.

Open the market up... if we have good market base u will see other air line coming in and making it competitive thus it would result in cheaper air fairs.... However, currently PIA has sort of monoply on the market but is a burden on our nation..

Maybe we can sell PIA to other investors thus creating competition between Air blue and PIA and reducing any governmental bariers which protect pIA.

1: government is not a alien entity...it is a elected representative of the peoples to manage their comulitive assets...

2: PIA is a assett of the people of pakistan and is worth several billion dollers

3: in 2005 PIA turned over us$1bn for the exchequer, but profitability is being effected by the doubling of global fuel prices since 2000.

4: PIA fleet size is 42 aircraft with 8 more on order.

5: there are several private sector airlines such as airblue, shaheen air, aero asia, ASSL and competition for domestic cirquit is ripe...

Achievements and Recognitions

* First airline from an Asian country to fly the Super Constellation.
* First Asian airline to operate a jet aircraft.
* First Asian airline to be granted maintenance approval by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Air Registration Board, predecessor of the British Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).
* First non-communist airline to fly to the People's Republic of China, and operate a service between Asia and Europe via Moscow.
* First airline in Asia to induct the new technology Boeing 737-300 aircraft.
* First airline in the world to operate scheduled helicopter services.
* First airline to show in-flight movies on international routes.
* The first airline in South Asia to introduce auto-ticketing facility.
* The first airline in the world to fly to Tashkent, capital of the newly independent state of Uzbekistan.
* First airline in the world to start Air Safari with jet aircraft.
* First Asian airline to start flights to Oslo, the capital city of Norway.
* First airline in the world to induct Boeing 777-200LR, the world's longest range commercial airliner.
* First airline in the world to take delivery of the Boeing 777-200LR Worldliner (Longer Range Variant).
* Pakistan International Airlines Flight Services Department was awarded the ISO 9001:2000 certification award during May 2006.
* First airline in Pakistan to operate a flight with an all female crew at command and serving in the cabin.
* PIA was briefly featured in the Adam Sandler movie 'Anger Management.'

Precision Engineering Complex(PEC) is located in Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan. Precision Engineering Complex is a division of Pakistan International Airlines. Created in 1978 to manufacture products for commercial aviation industry of the world. The parts manufactured by PEC are fitted on over two dozen A320/321 Airbuses now flying with several airlines of the world. In May 2006, Boeing has placed electronics contract manufacturing orders worth $ 100 million to Precision Engineering Complex (PEC) and Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC).


they also own a Hotel in manhattan.

Exactly Yahya.

PIA has a GREAT history, but is plagued by wreckless managament!!!!

Just let me handle PIA for one year, only ONE year and I'll give back a world class airline!

Fully agree, reckless mismanagement has been the core reason for PIA’s failures.

the failure has been that cost of running the airline has doubled in the past 4 years...due to high oil prices.

Add reckless management to that…

well the management was not able to minimise on costs nor increase on price.....

increasing price would have meant that no one would fly with PIA...

minimising costs would mean downscaling the business...to a point where there is so much demand that the prices woul go up anyways...

But you can't solely blame the higher fuel prices, then all other airlines of the world incl. Airblue also had to perform as bad as PIA, but they don't

It won't take decades to reach profit, maybe a few years. Remember the amount of workers for PIA is nearly double of what is needed, and that also results in mismanagement. If you remove those (8,000 or so) workers and improve the efficiency (as AirBlue is good at), you can reach profit. And remember the government is losing money annually to pay for the deficit PIA has, so in the short run it won't lose that money, and in the long run they will still gain the money from privatization.

but then you have to take into account that airblue has fraction of airplanes PIA has and also dozens of airlines have gone bankrupt due to fuel prices.

Yes, but PIA also has more passengers. It is mismanagement anyway you look at it.

And every time they go bankrupt, their account is filled again by PAK government right?
So they have had many many many extra chances.

PIA is mismanaged, corruption (yes and it extends all the way down to the ticket sellers, ask them why they walk around with a special list in the airports, and even the airport check-in personal don't know about the list, if they did, PIA would be kicked out of Denmark for good. And I am pretty sure this also happens at other places.)

Besides, PIA takes higher prices then other companies.

there is a major difrence between making losses and going bankrupt


if they doent charge higher prices their would be more losses. best way to resolve it is to downscale the operation...

then you will have unemployment in thousands.
supply for seating will not be met by demand thus prices would inflate supernaturaly
because there will be less seating capacity then demanded, forget the notion of pakistan the tourist destination, untill extra terestrial airlines such as Emirates expand to a point where they can provide such capacity, but then you will have to travel to dubai first and then rerouted to pakistan....

job cuts in critical departments such as maintenance could result in catastrophic disastors.

job cuts in managerial positions will result in even more losses as the company will not be handled properly without managment staff

your idea of management is bizare, you believe if you make loss, you should sell...yet there are a LOT of airlines making a LOT of losses yet they carry on with their operation....BA was making loss not long ago, according to your logic, it should have been sold off?


now go up and read what i posted....such as in 2005 PIA made a profit of us$1bn which was a great bonus to the federal reserve....

go read how the oil prices have doubled since 2000 hence obviusly the operating costs....as a matter of fact, operating costs of PIA have not risen too dramaticly as compared to oil prices, this showcases hard work by the management to reduce costs.


but you also out of some wierd belief forget to take into account that the 747s are banned in europe and thus 777s are now in operation on that rout, 777s doent have any where near the capacity of 747, thus economy of scale....

you also forget that the 747s had to go through multi million doller upgrade to bring them back upto standard....but europeans woent lift the ban anyways.


you also forget that the PIA maintenance department has won awards for its quality, yet for some reason european commision believes it is the worlds crapest maintenance department..

when you make a loss, you invest more, if you withdraw you will make greater losses....once a few issues have been sorted out, PIA will go back into profit...and $1bn a year to the reserve is not too much of a bad thing

PIA cant go bankrupt... it is taking billion out of the treasury and will continue to do so to pay for the losses... however, if it was some private company it would have been out of business by now...

SO privitisation of PIA is neccessary to bring it bak as a giant or else its gonna cost us billions.

1. Well first of, don't put words in my mouth bro, I have never said such a thing!

2. How come we had 747s flying without all these security upgrades in the first place?

3. As far as I know, and have read around on PDF and on PA, we have a lot of Sifarish system going on inside PIA. If that isn't bad, then I don't know what bad is...

Why should PIA have several thousands employees more than needed?
Why should PIA have unqualified people running business? (Sifarish)?

I have never said anything bad about PIA pilots, cabin personal, technicians etc. so don't claim that I have.
Tickets sellers here in DK are mudding PIAs image. So these people I am still targeting for critic.
I don't know about the improvements after the new PIA chairman, but before him at least, things have been running unhounestly, un-Pakistani and un-Islamic (Yeah, corruption and Sifarish are as far as I know un-Islamic.)

Yeah, I know what you mean. I was a bit apprehensive flying from Islamabad, because ISB is notorious for rishwat, but surprisingly, everything was fine. I think maybe they're more stricter now, considering the airport is the first impression of Pakistan a foreigner is going to get.

again, if you bothered to read the post...

pia has been giving more then a billion a year..

since no one can apparantlee see any more.. yes i said


us$1 billion

Is anyone here actually trying to argue that PIA does not have mismanagement?

Giving to whom... all the reports ive read are that PIA is in red... Now dont confuse ur self with NET PROFIT and REVENUES both are two different things... If its $1 Billion revenues than its a shame that we have such low revenues for national carrier...

PIA should be sold for free.

Or you could as successfully sell it to AirBlue on profit payment basis.

Guys, I think the order was for 14 airliners.

Airblue places orders for 14 A-320-200 worth $920m

PakTribune | Saturday November 17, 2007 (0403 PST)

KARACHI: Airblue, Pakistan`s private sector airline, has placed orders worth dollars 910 million with Airbus for the purchase of 14 new A320-200 aircraft.

"This is the largest ever order for outright purchase of brand new aircraft by any Pakistani private sector carrier", said Chief Operating Officer Airblue, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi while addressing a press conference here Friday.

The formal agreement for the purchase of these aircrafts was signed between Airbus Industries and Airblue in Dubai on November 13 during the five-day air show.

The COO of Airbus Industries John Leahy signed the agreement on behalf of the aircraft manufacturer and Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on behalf of the airblue.

Abbasi said the first A320-200 aircraft would be delivered in July 2009, and thereafter one aircraft would be delivered after every three months thus completing the delivery of 14 aircraft by the end of 2012.

He stated that the airline is also reviewing other aircraft requirements, and is looking into acquisition of 4 to 8 modern planes (A350/787) for long haul routes based on market situation during the next 24 months.

About future expansion plans, Abbasi said the airline is also interested in acquiring three more aircraft on lease by June 2008 to expand its international network.

Once the new aircraft are inducted in the fleet, Airblue would expand towards West as well as East. He said the airline is planning to expand its operation to more European, Middle Eastern destinations, India, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Thailand.

link

edit

I pray for AirBlue's success...

They deserve it bro. They have truly achieved a lot for them self and are an inspiration for Pakistan's private sector. Airblue deserves an award from the government for its efforts.

I agree...man I can't wait to see if AirBlue will order Boeing-787s/A-350s!

I wonder if they have plans for a low-budget subsidary - AirBlue Light?

air blue IS a low budget airline...quite cheap....

They are pretty cheap right now.

As I said before, the government should help boost them by selling them PIA (on a profit payment basis). It would help the government because it will make money from the privatization and it won't have to be the PIA deficit anymore. AirBlue has good management (it can fire the 8,000 extra employees PIA has, these are all extras in the managing), it can create profit as it is doing right now (in a few years time), and that will boost AirBlue significantly.

they want to expand to india,
that is good
must be a good airline

It is a good airline, I've traveled on them once.

The best part about them is that they are business oriented, they do not see racial or political barriers as obstacles, rather as opportunities.

I travelled on AirBlue when I was in Pakistan a couple of weeeks ago. I was very impressed by their service both on the ground and in the air. Very clean aircraft, very polite and receptive check-in staff and very nice looking air hostesses ;-)

PIA by comparison is just s**t. Blaming their losses on high oil prices alone glosses over the fact that it is an enourmously inefficient airline and that they have one of the world's highest staff-to-aircraft ratios with the best airlines like Emirates having a staff-to-aircraft ratio of around 50% less than PIA!

regards.

P.S. like shahid2k I also say give me 1 yr with PIA and I'll sort the airline out.