Pakistan International Airline is planning to introduce direct flights to London Heathrow from Sialkot International Airport. It recently started direct flights to Barcelona from Sialkot. PIA also announced to restart flight operation to Tokyo Narita International airport from 30th May.
The load factor on Sialkot Barcelona flights is really good and the airline is planning to replicate the success on London route. According to PIA sources, the flights have up to 80 per cent load factor. But the biggest question is how long it will take to sustain this load factor and if this route requires a Boeing 777 or a smaller aircraft that can sustain the loads but provide better frequency.
The most important question is that PIA’s engineering is in dire straits and currently the situation is there are multiple planes stuck without parts while the management has decided to get aircraft on lease. It was high time if they decided to spend the money on sorting out their current fleet rather than going after an easy solution.