Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Tuesday, Dec 30, 2003
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Tuesday, Dec 30, 2003 |
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Airlines Logistics - Airlines PIA `Jumbo' to fly into Delhi on New Year day Ashwini Phadnis
New Delhi , Dec. 29 A PAKISTAN International Airlines (PIA) `Jumbo' is scheduled to touch down at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International airport on January 1 at 4 p.m. heralding the reopening of direct air links between India and Pakistan. "The January 1 flight from Pakistan will be operated with a 400-plus seater Boeing 747-300 aircraft. We are operating the larger aircraft to meet the huge demand for travel to the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit which is being hosted by Pakistan," the airline's Manager, India, Mr Parwez Ahmed Khan, told Business Line. India and Pakistan had closed their respective air space for use by aircraft registered in each other's countries from January 1, 2002. Incidentally, the aircraft being used for the January 1 flight is the "biggest possible" aircraft available with the airline, the official said. PIA plans to utilise the smaller 118-seater Boeing 737 aircraft for its regular twice-a-week flight on the Lahore-Delhi-Lahore sector. While there are said to be several empty seats on the first flight from Lahore to Delhi, there is said to be heavy demand for seats to reach Pakistan. At the present moment, the worry for the airline staff in Delhi is to arrange seats on onward connecting flights between Lahore and Islamabad. "We are in touch with the head office to arrange additional flights between Lahore and Islamabad to meet the growing passenger demand," Mr Khan said. PIA plans to offer six weekly flights from Delhi and Mumbai to Pakistan. While the airline plans to operate the more than 200-seater Airbus A-300 aircraft on the Mumbai-Pakistan sector, it has decided to commission the Airbus A-310 on the Delhi-Karachi sector. Meanwhile, the airline is said to be interested in operating flights to at least three southern destinations, including Kochi, Calicut and Hyderabad. However, officials said that a final decision on which city PIA will operate to, could only be announced after the conclusion of air services bilateral talks between the authorities of the two countries.
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