Pakistan International Airlines operates a twice weekly flight between Lahore and New York. On the westbound flight, the plane makes a stop in Manchester, where passengers have to get off and reclear security. That's because the US doesn't allow nonstop flights from Pakistan due to safety concerns. Meanwhile the eastbound flight operates nonstop. Last year…
Continue reading: Pakistan International Airlines Finally Cutting Flights To The US?
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@ W -- I have a lot of typos, but this isn't one of them. 😉
http://www.dictionary.com/browse/yow
I guess this would leave only Toronto as their sole North American destination. I wonder how their Toronto flight is doing in comparison given that they are losing so much money flying to New York. I believe it operates non-stop in both directions and they fly from Toronto to Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi.
@ YYZFlyer
The YYZ route is doing good for PIA. As you mentioned the airline operates three times a week to three different destinations in Pakistan. I know quite a few people who take this flight because it's the only non-stop option. All other options take 21+ hrs vs 13hrs direct. Also Toronto has one of the biggest Pakistani communities in North America. PIA also has code-share agreements with AC, and WS to NYC so I think the flight will continue to do well if PIA leaves JFK.
KTHY (Cyprus Turkish Airlines ) had 800 staff /airplane and they bancrupted.I think this is the world record. Most of the staff was not coming to work indeed just getting salary.
Lucky
I take my hat off to you for flying PIA, that shows absolute commitment.
I’ve heard some pretty awful stories about PIA, all the money in the world wouldn’t be enough to get me on one of their planes.
Think I’ll check out your review, I’m intrigued.
@Armen IPEKCI,
Agree with you. PIA is on the same track. The statement is about PIA pilots, politicians and officials not wanting to discontinue service because they benefit from this segment is only partially true. The actual problem is the number of employees per aircraft, and as you said, they don't go to work and draw salaries.
Not only is there a massive Pakistani presence in Toronto, but Canada also imposes limits on the number of flights allowed per airline, so Emirates and the like are already capped out. New York is a different story, where Emirates alone has 4 A380s plus a 77W (EWR) daily and PIA doesn't stand a chance.
By the way, it wasn't always this way with PIA. There was a time they ran a pretty classy operation and had a great reputation. I flew their A300s and 747s many times as a child. I also recall they were the first airline to fly the 777-200LR.
I do see why PIA's planning to keep Toronto flight while discarding JFK.
As others mentioned above, Canada's highly regulated airline markets means that ME3 has limited number of flights to Canada. At the moment from Toronto, there's 3/w service to Dubai on Emirates, 3/w service to Abu Dhabi on Etihad, and Air Canada has 3/w service to Dubai. Qatar doesn't even fly to Toronto, instead they have 3/w service to Montréal. Given there's a big Pakistani diaspora communities in Canada, there isn't simply enough flights between two nations, taking aside there not being enough connecting flights via Europe (no major European carriers fly to Pakistan, apart from Turkish)
This is no the case for the USA. JFK's already got 7 daily flights to the ME3 hubs (Dubai 3/D, Abu Dhabi 2/D, Doha 2/D) while other major cities like Boston, Philly, and Chicago are getting enough love from ME3.
A malaise has struck Pakistan International Airlines, once a national asset with crack pilots and sound management.