PIA has issued most probably the last tender of 2017 regarding the leasing of narrow-body jets. Surprisingly this tender for the Dry leasing of 04 aircrafts hints that PIA is now looking for smaller Airbus as the Airbus A319 fits the bill.
Details of the tender are as follows:
- PIA is looking for 4 narrow-body planes on dry lease terms
- Seating configuration for the planes in 120 plus seats in both economy and business class which is the biggest hint that PIA is interested in Airbus A319 equipment for it.
- As per National Aviation Policy 2015, the aircraft should not be more than the age of 12 years at delivery time.
- Delivery schedule for 04 planes according to the tender is immediate availability or not later than by the end of 2018.
- Lease period for dry leasing the planes is 6 years or corresponding to first 12-yearly check.
The tender closing Date and time is 8th January 2018 at 1500 Hours (PST). The bids will be opened same day at 1600 Hours (PST).
PIA is desperately looking to increase the narrow body fleet quickly so when the 4 wet leased Vietnamese Vietjets go back, PIA doesn’t face the issue it faced between the Vietjets and Pegasus fleet. A timely induction of these 4 planes can help PIA a lot in continuing smooth operations on domestic sectors and also on Middle Eastern front and Far East routes. Earlier this year, due to lack of planning the wet-leased Pegasus jets were returned to the Turkish airline that severely disrupted the flight operations of the airline. A lot of PIA flights were cancelled or delayed when 4 planes went out of operations suddenly.
Hopefully, this time PIA will get the right planes quickly so the operations of PIA remain stable and increase Airbus family from 11 to 15.
