As you all may have heard, PIA and Turkish Airlines have reached an MoU for further cooperation. What i’m going to say is just my personal commentary with a link to actual article at the end.
So this is what is expected to happen:
PIA will make Istanbul its’ regional hub to compete with Arab carriers.
Turkish will make Karachi its’ hub respectively.
What PIA gives up:
JFK and ORD. PIA passengers will transit in Istanbul from which point, Turkish Airlines will fly them westward to ORD/JFK. Those going back to Pakistan will follow same itinerary and transfer to PIA in Istanbul
What THY gives up:
Its’ Asian routes to PIA. *East bound passengers from THY will transit to PIA in Karachi; from which point PIA will fly them to Asian and Eastern destinations like Dhaka, Colombo, *You can expect this to include China, Japan, Thailand and other destinations. An exclusive addition to the route would be Australia. (Pakistan residents might become fond of this option rather fast, if they’ve missed being able to fly PIA)
Why do it?
My understanding of this agreement is that PIA hopes to code share (though PIA MD termed it as being “more than just a code share”) with THY so PIA can exponentially expand its’ network and connect with more destinations and compete with Middle Eastern carriers namely Etihad, Gulf Air, Emirates, and Qatar.
Not only that, but this way Pakistan can truly focus its energies in expanding markets of Asia where Middle East Carriers are having a field day because there are few options. PIA will be able to better utilize its somewhat limited fleet in a more profitable and efficient manner. PIA can very possibly take a chunk of that business, provided it also improves its services as it starts to streamline.
Etihad delegation has also shown interest in a similar deal with PIA and will be coming to Pakistan real soon. But I wonder what can PIA possible offer Etihad?
So a question you all may be thinking of:
Will PIA no longer fly to EU or USA? Not entirely true. PIA is instead introducing Houston again which will be served with PIA. Possible stop over in IST? But it will be a PIA route. Also PIA MD says PIA will continue to serve UK, Norway, and some other european destinations.
Confused? Yes, i was too. But more details are coming out with time. And I’m sure even more details have yet to come out that will make it clearer to us what this truly means.
You can expect this to take place post March-2011, because as of now both Governments (Turkish and Pakistani) have to sign off on this MoU for it to become official. After March we can expect to see updated route maps and perhaps even live bookings on the carriers’ respective websites (PIA, Turkish Airlines)
And as noted at the beginning, the link for you to read for yourself.
Pakistani media terms this as “selling” routes. I was put off at first too, but if you really dive into the matter of the entire deal it starts to look very lucrative and I personally believe it’s a very shrewd decision which will benefit both THY and PIA. Not only will it streamline both airlines and allow them to serve far reaches of the globe. But it will increase tourism. I’m sure Turkey will offer tourism package to transit passengers if they wish to withdraw from airport for 2-3 days before continuing journey and see attractions. Same would probably be the case with Pakistan (situation permitting).
Anyways, here’s the link for GEO.
Please share your comments, suggestions, critique. If I’ve said something that is wrong, please correct me. The purpose was to inform everyone to the best of my understanding.
