Pakistan Airlines Is Operating A Military C-130 On Passenger Flights

Published: December 14, 2016

Last week a Pakistan International Airlines ATR tragically crashed while operating a domestic flight. The investigation regarding the incident is ongoing, and for the time being PIA has grounded their entire ATR fleet.

This has meant that PIA has had to cancel flights to some of their destinations. That’s because the next smallest plane in PIA’s fleet is the A320, and it’s not capable at landing at many of these smaller airports.

Well, it looks like PIA has a creative solution to this… sort of.

For the time being, PIA is operating a Pakistan Air Force C-130 on select flights. While the C-130 is a fairly large plane, it is able to take off on very short runways, so can serve most of the airports that the ATR can.

PIA obtains services of a C-130 aircraft from PAF for resumption of flights to Gilgit. PK-605 to operate at 11am instead of 7am tomorrow pic.twitter.com/Mme6YzMqoz

— Cultural Maverick (@CulturalMaverik) December 14, 2016

Given that this is a military plane, the C-130 interior typically looks like a cargo hold. The plane sometimes has netted benches along the side of the plane, though I’ve never seen one in a “true” passenger configuration.

PIA gets services of PAF C-130 Hercules https://t.co/dR2ZU5rsmu pic.twitter.com/IHjh7xONqA

— Times of lsIamabad (@TimesofIslambad) December 14, 2016

Ultimately I commend PIA for their creativity here. They don’t have many options when the entire ATR fleet is grounded, so this is a creative way for them to still get passengers to their destination. I assume passengers can refund their tickets if they’re not comfortable with flying a military plane.

But ultimately PIA deserve credit for their creativity, and as an aviation geek, this seems like one of the more unique passenger flights out there.

What do you think of what PIA is doing, and does flying a C-130 sound like avgeek heaven or torture to you?

(Tip of the hat to @AirlineFlyer)

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W Diamond

August 2, 2017, 9:18 am

@Lucky - Did you know that famous singer and preacher Junaid Jamshed died on that ATR crash.

‼ 0

Adam Member

December 15, 2016, 4:08 pm

I have spent a lot of time on an L-100 (the civilian version) in Afghanistan. I imagine that it is an amazing plane as a pilot, but horrible as a passenger!

Steve Guest

December 15, 2016, 9:22 am

I have a lot of time in the C-130 while on A give Duty. They do have passenger pallets that have airline like seats, but still not the most comfortable. The lavatory is not a pretty site either.

Matt Guest

December 15, 2016, 5:54 am

@ Abhinav - a bit excessive, I'd say. I've been living in Pakistan for six years and have experienced nothing but hospitality. Gilgit in particular is spectacularly beautiful. Just need a way to convince the wife that this would be a good Christmas break for the family...

Paul v New Member

December 15, 2016, 2:46 am

What FLYINRYAN and DALE said. Have flown many times on a USAF C-130 as crew and passenger. AVGEEK heaven. Loud. Either hot or cold (never in between). Have actually had a "pax pallet" a couple of times with uncomfortablenairline typenseats and an enclosed porta-potty, but usually sling seats (with pallets in the middle and NO legroom). But in a relatively empty plane a sleeping not seat is VERY comfortable if you can lay down on a length of it. The low "thrumming" can actually lull me to sleep (and I have a hard time sleeping in a lay flat biz seat!), and if you're on a military flight and the ramp is open there is NOTHING like it! Yup. Air Force geek here. Would fly it in a second (ok...maybe not a Pakistani c-130 since I'm familiar with their military maintenance) but a Non middle-east c-130? In a heartbeat.

Pakistan Airlines Is Operating A Military C-130 On Passenger Flights

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