The Pakistan International Airlines (PIA)’s initiative of night coach service received such a lukewarm response on its first day that the jumbo jets planned for the service had to be replaced by smaller planes, Pakistan Today has learnt.
Reliable sources informed Pakistan Today that due to the limited number of passengers availing the service, the national flag carrier had to run the smaller planes.
The PIA management’s claim of earning high profits fell flat on their faces, as initially claiming to run 468-seater jumbo planes on the routes, a 48-seater ATR plane and a 118-seater plane (type 737-300) were flown on the Karachi-Lahore-Karachi route and the Karachi-Islamabad-Karachi route, respectively.
Interestingly, to attract passengers the fares of night coach were cut down to Rs 5,000 excluding taxes but this too would prove futile exercise as nobody is interested in travelling at the night time, especially to Karachi due to the law and order situation. “One would never want to land in Karachi at night while the city is plagued with violence and targeted killings a norm,” they added.
“The airline’s claim of generating Rs 4 million on two days of operation is extremely exaggerated, as the fare of the first flight service for each passenger was Rs 6,666 and even if planes on both routes were fully reserved – a highly unlikely event – it could only generate a little over Rs 1.1 million,” the sources said.
They added that the PIA management also claims that it will carry 20 tonnes high-yield cargo daily, but it is not likely to happen as the market share of PIA’s cargo is very limited while there is no cargo volume from Islamabad to Karachi.
“Even if all shipment stakeholders are included, the volume of high-yield cargo for Lahore is not more than eight tonnes, while only two or three tonnes are sent to Islamabad. From Karachi to Lahore, the total volume of high-yield cargo is around six tonnes, so the freight volume left over in the market is very low for the national carrier,” the sources said. “The TCS flies its freight plane 737-200 on Karachi-Lahore-Karachi route daily for 15 tonnes cargo including couriers. The Shaheen Air also carries three tonnes of cargo daily on the same route.”
“For what left over volume of cargo and passengers the national airline is to run 28 flights a week, especially in the winter season when you have below freezing temperatures in many cities and you cannot expect people to fly at night,” the sources questioned.
“Therefore, the night coach plan would surely result in heavy losses and the PIA administration doesn’t have plausible justification regarding the economics of such operation. Who will be held accountable for the anticipated failure is a huge question,” they said.
On Monday, PIA Deputy Managing Director Captain Junaid claimed that the night coaches are operating with full loads, and the flights to Lahore and Islamabad are likely to fetch the airline Rs 3 to 4 million daily, as well as provide affordable air travel within the country. “Soon the PIA will announce night coaches for Multan,” he said.
When contacted, PIA spokesman Sultan Ahmed said the type of planes flown on the route depends on the passenger load and the planes available. “Including cargo, the night coaches have so far generated Rs 4 million for the airlines,” he added.
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