KARACHI, Jan 19: The first of the eight Boeing 777 aircraft, which the Pakistan International Airlines is buying, will join its fleet on Feb 15. The delivery of the second such aircraft is expected to be made in the first week of March.

Two aircraft are expected to arrive in 2006 while the delivery of the remaining ones will be made in 2008, PIA's Marketing Director, Kamran Hasan, told reporters on Monday.

"Despite fierce competition from low-fare airlines, PIA has achieved its profitability target of Rs3.3 billion and 72.2 per cent seat factor, excluding Haj operations, during the year 2003," Mr Hasan said, adding that this was in contrast to the financial recovery experienced in 2002 which was based mainly on cost reduction and administrative and consolidation measures.

He said the success was the result of expansion in the route network and optimum utilization of increased capacities in vital markets. The national carrier had added a number of new destinations recently, including Sharjah, Mashhad, Almaty, Tashkent, Chicago, New Delhi, Mumbai, Kathmandu, Colombo and Dhaka, Mr Hasan said.

On the international routes more than 2.4 million passengers travelled by the airline, an increase of more than 10.5 per cent when compared to the previous year. Likewise, on the domestic routes 2.1 million passengers were taken to their destinations, registering an increase of 6.2 per cent.

The overall passenger traffic factor remained 4.53 million against last year's 4.18 million. The cargo traffic also recorded an increase of 2.7 per cent during the year on international routes. On the domestic sector the airline transported 75,941 AFTKs against 73,099 AFTKs last year, indicating an increase of 3.9 per cent.