Competition in Pakistan's domestic passenger market is intensifying as new airlines are launched and existing carriers respond with new equipment, writes Leithen Francis.
Pakistani cargo carrier Royal Airlines plans to expand into the scheduled domestic passenger market around October.
Talks have already begun with leasing companies, says Royal Airlines managing director Capt Aijaz Faizi, adding that the airline plans to start with three aircraft and is considering Airbus A310s and Boeing 737-300s.
"We're not going to be a no- frills airline, instead we will be more like Emirates," he says.
Royal Airlines will start with domestic services but wants to then quickly move on to international routes.
Domestically, it will compete against another start-up, AirBlue, which launched on 18 June with thrice-daily services on the Karachi-Islamabad and Karachi-Lahore routes using three Airbus A320s on lease.
AirBlue, which caters to economy- and business-class passengers, is backed by a group of Pakistan-born IT entrepreneurs who reside in the USA but have appointed the former chairman of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, to manage the airline.
Meanwhile, incumbent carrier Shaheen Air International recently underwent an ownership change, with its parent selling out to Canadian company Tawa International for Rs600 million ($10 million). The airline's chief executive Aamer Ali Sharieff says that the new owners also agreed to take on the airline's liabilities.
Sharieff says he hopes the new owners will kick-start a long-awaited plan to replace the airline's fleet of three Tupolev Tu-154Bs and two Yakovlev Yak-42Ds with either Airbus A320s or Boeing 737s. "With a change in equipment we can tackle anybody," says Sharieff.
Source: Flight International
