Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has taken delivery of the first of five ATR 72-500s it has agreed to lease for eight years.
The airline says that the first aircraft arrived on 11 April, while the remaining four will join its fleet throughout 2015. All five ATR 72s will be based at Jinnah International Airport in Karachi.
Flightglobal’s Ascend Fleets database shows PIA also operates six ATR 42-500s. With the addition of the five larger ATRs, PIA will operate a fleet of 11 turboprops aircraft.
The aircraft are being leased from Abric Leasing, but will not replace the ATR 42s. A spokesman for the airline says that the latter aircraft are “relatively quite young.”
Ascend shows that PIA’s ATR 42s have an average age of eight years.
PIA is also seeking to dry lease up to eight additional Airbus A320 by the end of 2015. The spokesman says that discussions are ongoing, and that the carrier "remains hopeful of securing the aircraft in the given timeframe".
PIA operates a fleet of 10 A320 family aircraft.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
