Airbus A380 a Magnificient plane ideal for PIA

[AZADPAKISTAN2009]

Well capacity for Jumbo 747 was 500 passengers

So I am sure A380 with 800 Passengers would not offer any trouble. 300 extra passengers I doubt would trouble International standard airports in Pakistan

Our airports do get 2-13 planes landing and the luggage arriving on belts so they are already processing many passengers.

A380 is more about , getting line with Modernization goals for PIA

Consider this , there will be more Pakistanis in USA , Canada or UK, Australia or Bejing employed in high paying jobs who would like to visit Pakistan for Family visits so its only "Natural" that the A380 plane be purchased

A380 is truly a master piece of plane

Also from marketing perspective , Pakistani families like to travel in bunch , parents and kids , so imagine from marketing prespective if PIA can offer Adults/Children rates to families More passengers would be encouraged to fly resulting in more profits for PIA. Plus it would be a family friendly flight.

One cannot over look the comfort factor

 

[ACE OF THE AIR]

@ AZADPAKISTAN2009,

Sir, the A380 is a very good aircraft and I have been following the entire development to date. Though I strongly agree that this should one day be part of the PIA fleet. Presently this aircraft has been tested and approved to fly long haul flights.

If PIA does negotiate with Airbus to reduce the range and increase its payload to some where 1000 passenger then only this aircraft can be part of PIA on route Pakistan-Saudi Arabia. Even after this Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority would have to build wider and stronger runways, taxi ways and aprons along with increase the terminal building staff that provide facilitation to passengers. Security and Immigrations would also have to do the same.

Further more we would have to consider other stuff such as handling charges, landing charges that are based on the maximum weight of the aircraft, insurance and the number of passengers flying off to the destination per annum.

Pakistan does not offer alcohol on its flights so we can not have many foreigners travelling on the flights. There is also an other problem which is that passengers flying to the West tend to travel in vacations, so there is a chance of this aircraft to be filled but on the return flight the aircraft is empty (may be 50-100 passengers).

USA does not allow direct flights from Pakistan so if PIA has to fly to New York it has to perform a technical landing ( A technical landing means fuel and crew can be changed no passengers can be dropped or taken) at a destination that the US accepts (i.e. Manchester presently). So now you can imagine the operating cost of this aircraft will increase. A long haul flight typically is considered to be profitable after 16hrs of flight so if this aircraft has to land at half the distance it is not economical.

This is the only reason PIA replaced the order of B777-200LR to B777-200ER. PIA is presently flying 2 B777-200LR on Pakistan-Canada. PIA would be better off procuring 2 more B777-200LR and fly to Australia or increase the flights to other cities of Canada. PIA requires to replace the Boeing 747-300s which can be be done with B777-300 or B777-300ER to fly the umrah and hajj flights. The B777s can be operated from almost all the major airports of Pakistan. This would reduce the maintenance and training costs as well as compared to establishing new set-up for the A380.

A380 has a very limited scope presently or in the future. Yes there is also an argument to get Boeing or Airbus which I will tell you some other time.

 

[xyxmt]

Employees of PIA has to first take the ownership of the airline and work for the benefit of the airline not their personal benefits. I have always travelled by PIA, to me 15 hours of discomfort is fine if It benefits people of Pakistan, on the other hand I see none at PIA cares for that airline. I see half the plane is occupied by ex-employees while I have hard time getting a seat even 2 months ahead of time. I see people who worked once for PIA and retired 20 years ago still goto Pakistan on employee tickets for their grand sons birthday. In this situation PIA will never be profitable even if they get 10 A380 and it will be another burden on already broke airline.

not to mention the horror of traveling with 800 passengers half of them kids.

 

[MastanKhan]

Hi,

PIA is not allowed to fly direct from pakistan to the u s due to terrorist threat.

PIA went for boeing in the early 2000 and dumped airbus for the promise of direct flights. The direct flight was within grabs----but then pakistanis scre-wed up. If they had supported th ewot terror 100% and stood behind musharraf govt---they would have had it all

 

[ACE OF THE AIR]

My children,

As you don't know it---it is my job to share---. PIA is not allowed to fly direct from Pakistan to the US due to terrorist threat.

The actual issue is US offered the latest screening and scanning machines that are currently being used at Amsterdam airport but Pakistan refused them on religious, moral and national security related grounds, so the US imposed on flights flown from Pakistan will require to land at an other airport which has a flight time no less then 6 hrs so that all the passengers can be properly rescanned before they even enter the US airspace by the relevant authorities. Had Pakistan accepted the equipment this would not have been a problem as a live feed was to transmit all the information.

 

[liall]

A380 weighs more has a larger wing span compared to rest of the planes. So to handle A380 you need to upgrade your airports and other then that it is a high capacity plane. Unless you have millions flying in and out of an airport every year like US or Chinese Airports you do not really need A380

 

[AZADPAKISTAN2009]

Good points

The Airport modification is a no issue , you give a contractor a contract they can build it even local companies.
Handling baggage no issue minor cost , and we already service Boeing 747 Jumbo.

Well , locals or Foreigner, the issue should be provide service (Correct or Not)
The plane offers casual lounges for passengers and comfort unparalleled , so PIA customer loyalty would improve.
Considering PIA already provides good customer service on board.

Taking passengers off the plane , you just need to buy the special connecting tunnels one time purchase

Considering there would be more seats , PIA would be able to offer good rates for families to travel in not traditional vacation days , husband may be working but his wife/ kids may want to travel back during summer break etc
Extra seat capacity , offers chance to "give reduced rates" and more service to people.

The A380 is ideal plane , for Long range flights

There are a lot of people who visit Pakistan considering due to extra seats , better ticket prices are offered.

US (5), A380
New York - Islamabad
Chicago - Islamabad
Los Angles - Islamabad
Seattle - Islamabad
Boston - Islamabad

Canada (2), A380
Toronto - Islamabad
Vancouver - Islamabad

UK (2), A380
London - Islamabad

Asia (1), A380
Islamabad - Australia / Beijing/ Seoul/ Tokyo


As far as I know , PIA got long distance planes because they did not wanted to land in middle spots in Europe and paying extra fees and dealing with bureaucracy


Plus PIA once they get the planes could target via Marketing Local Pakistani Families , and offer them discounted flights , so they make 2 trips back home every years instead of 1 trip every 2 years. This is why , people hire Marketing companies to bring in more customers , travel agents don't bring customers, its marketing companies bring you new customers


+ Business Travelers are always going to Pakistan from all countries

 

[airmarshal]

Its not at all idea plane for PIA.

PIA flies long distances but its planes are empty. The longest flights, from Canada and US to Karachi are most of the time empty.

Pakistan is not a tourist or business destination. Just look hoe few airlines touch down in Pakistan.

If and only if PIA is profitable and flies long distances with loaded planes, only then A380 can be termed a suitable plane. At this moment, PIA needs more long haul planes and B777 suits them very well.

Look at Emirates, British Airways, Singapore Airlines. They fly A380. Compare their quality of service, profitability with PIA.

With such few options to fly out to Pakistan, you will surprised to know PIA is the most expensive airline to fly from Canada to Pakistan. Etihad, Emirates, Turkish and Qatar have newer planes much better service and their prices lower than PIA. And PIA is a loss making entity.

First turn it around, make it profitable, make Pakistan a coveted destination and then think about an expensive plane like A380.

 

[janu.bravo]

A-380 for PIA? 777 is more thn enought for PIA. We don't really have any route which is suitable for a-380's.. from next year we will start rcvng 5 new 777-3er(hopefully) and that would be enough for long-haul flights. we need a-321 in numbers right now. nothing else

 

[ACE OF THE AIR]

A380 HGW can be really profitable in an all economy configuration for PIA on Hajj and Umrah flights. Unfortunately this type of aircraft would have 1000+ seats amounting to price cut by 75%. Complication that is faced by airlines is the return flight which is moslty empty.

as an example:
Let me explain how do Hajj fights operate:
50000 passengers in all from Pakistan
If 10000 passengers are to be flown from Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Multan and Quetta.

Assuming all airports are capable of handling A380s. 50 flights will fly these passengers to Jeddah in the first phase and return empty. 50 more flights will be flown from Pakistan empty which will bring the Hajji's back.

In reality it seems like 50 flights are flown but a total of 100 flights are required. so now do the maths.

 

[Basel]

Guys its good idea to have good planes like A-380s for PIA, but problem with PIA is its extreme mismanagement and too much political intervention, which have allowed corruption to go sky high, PIA is also over burdened as per staff it has, to much non working politically influenced staff many of which want to settle abroad using PIA.

PIA needs to be brought out of this situation first to become profitable and being able to generate good revenues continuously and PIA have potential to do that well.

 

[nomi007]

day dreaming

 

[Jf Thunder]

What time are you living in?

thy must have one dismantled somewhere, why cant they assemble one for us?

 

[MarkusS]

thy must have one dismantled somewhere, why cant they assemble one for us?

What do you want assembled? Pakistan Airlines can order Airbus whenever they want. It is upt to them to place the order.

 

[Counter-Errorist]

Audi R8 a Magnificent vehicle ideal for me!

So who wants to buy me one?