PIA adds three more planes to its fleet

COLOMBO: PIA’s Chief Executive Officer Bernd Hildenbrand (left) shakes hands with Chairman of Sri Lankan Airlines Ajith Dias after signing a contract for the wet lease of three A-330 aircraft on Friday.—INP

RAWALPINDI: The Pakistan International Airlines has included three Airbus A-330 planes in its fleet after signing a wet lease agreement with Sri Lankan Airlines.

A spokesman for PIA said that the national flag carrier formalised the wet leasing of three A-330 aircraft from Sri Lankan Airlines at a ceremony held in Colombo on Friday.

PIA CEO Bernd Hildenbrand signed the contract with Sri Lankan Airlines chairman Ajith Dias and CEO Capt Suren Ratwatte.

He said the contract had been materialised after a series of talks between the two sides.

First of the aircraft will be delivered to PIA the next week, while the rest in the following months.

The aircraft are in very good condition and will be used for PIA Premier, giving passengers a better experience and allowing the airlines to start regaining its market share, the spokesman said.

PIA Premier is scheduled to be launched on Aug 14, initially only for London. There will be six weekly Premier flights to London — three from Islamabad and three from Lahore.

Later, with addition of more aircraft, the service will be expanded to other destinations, he said PIA Chairman Azam Saigol appreciated efforts of the PIA team, led by Mr Hildenbrand, in finalising the contract.

Published in Dawn, July 30th, 2016

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Comments (10) Closed

Crime Master GOGO

Jul 30, 2016 07:13am

PIA, please start flight operations in Australia as well!

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Ahmed USA

Jul 30, 2016 07:27am

Awesome... PIA finally taking off... We need more planes... More routes... Less vacancy... Right sized human resource... Merit, merit & merit only...

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Just thought

Jul 30, 2016 07:27am

Congrats Mr Hildenbrand. Just keep strict management on PIA, no corruption,no nepotism,no extra staff. PIA will be one of the best again.There is a lot of eventual business if we liberalise visa regime with India,and open new airflight routes to more big cities of India, like Chennai, Kolkatta,Hyderabad ,Bunglore,Chandigarh,because lot of people from these places enter through Delhi,Pakistan may allow Indian Airlines to pick passengers from its cities,the airlines business with flourish .

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Ayesha MD

Jul 30, 2016 01:42pm

According to my uncle whose a pilot and his wife a flight attendant formerly for PIA but now in the USA, these are additions to the fleet as Pakistan cannot afford to buy more 777's. The A310 would be in use in place for carriers using 767's as Airbus is cheaper as an option, further leasing is even cheaper. Now the A330 is in fashion so its the cheaper option than the 777 and leasing it is even cheaper. However it has its own problems as its a fully automated aircraft and fly by wire, only two minutes of actualy flying i.e. landing and takeoff. Rest is done by computer. Pakistani pilots are trained on manual planes like the Boeing.

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Dr. Salaria, Aamir Ahmad

Jul 30, 2016 02:55pm

A good step in the right direction.

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Tazia

Jul 30, 2016 03:01pm

3 from Islamabad, 3 from Lahore ..... Anything for Karachi ??

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Gerry D'Cunha

Jul 30, 2016 03:32pm

Overseas Pakistanis should make the best use of their national carrier and bring back the 1960s dream back.

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Naveed Somroo

Jul 30, 2016 04:47pm

So called ‪‎PIA‬ ‪‎PremiumService‬ is the biggest hoax ever and here are the details. SriLankan previously committed to pay US $ 1.4 million a month for these aircraft to the AerCap leasing company . while the industry is leasing them out for amounts of US$ 900,000 to 1,000,000 a month. Today SriLankan was paying at least US$ 400,000 dollars a month extra and they had to continue this for 12 more years. However, SriLankans are at least much smarter than government of Pakistan to figure out their bad decision making and currently aiming to use PIA as dumping grounds for their expensive leases. This is basic math and even a high school kid can crunch the numbers to extrapolate the fact that this deal is neither viable nor feasible for Pakistan's National Carrier.

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Khan

Jul 30, 2016 06:38pm

PIA can't be competitive with its current scheduling. Only offering two flights a week to destinations is not competitive. Focus on fewer routes, with higher frequency because people demand convenience.

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Ehsan

Jul 30, 2016 07:06pm

How about adding from destinations in USA

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