Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) is planning to add a fourth weekly flight to New York from June 1 but it has yet to open the additional rotation for reservations. The new Wednesday flight will operate on a Karachi – Lahore – Manchester – New York JFK routing and will be flown by a Boeing 777-300ER. It is currently displaying in the GDS but has not yet appeared in the airline’s own booking system. Interestingly, all of PIA’s existing flights on this route operate the eastbound leg non-stop to Pakistan, but this flight is displaying a return flight via Manchester.
Around 144,000 passengers flew between Pakistan and the US in the past year with approximately 25,000 O&D travellers between Karachi and New York JFK and 34,000 between Lahore and New York JFK. This is a 24.1 per cent growth over the previous 12 month period and up 123.1 per cent on the year before that.
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MARKET ANALYSIS: Karachi – New York JFK (O&D traffic both directions) |
|||
|
Rank |
Airline |
Estimated Passengers |
Market Share |
|
1 |
Etihad Airways |
8,993 |
35.6 % |
|
2 |
Emirates Airline |
6,150 |
24.4 % |
|
3 |
Qatar Airways |
3,463 |
13.7 % |
|
4 |
Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) |
3,005 |
11.9 % |
|
5 |
Saudi Arabian Airlines |
1,909 |
7.6 % |
|
OTHERS |
1,732 |
6.9 % |
|
|
TOTAL |
25,252 |
- |
|
On the link from Karachi, PIA faces strong competition from the Gulf airlines, which offer a one-stop rather than a two-stop product. Etihad Airways is the dominant carrier on the route with a daily flight to its Abu Dhabi base and a daily link on to New York. Likewise, Emirates Airline offers a lot of capacity with up to four flights per day from Karachi to its Dubai International hub and two daily flights onward to New York, one of which is operated by the Airbus A380. Fares on the route average $635 each way, with Emirates proving to the most expensive operator over the past year, although this is most likely due to the fact that it accounts for a much larger share of the Business Class and First Class passengers travelling between these two destinations.
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MARKET ANALYSIS: Lahore – New York JFK (O&D traffic both directions) |
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|
Rank |
Airline |
Estimated Passengers |
Market Share |
|
1 |
Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) |
18,821 |
55.1% |
|
2 |
Etihad Airways |
6,023 |
17.6 % |
|
3 |
Kuwait Airways |
4,666 |
13.7 % |
|
4 |
Emirates Airline |
2,262 |
6.7 % |
|
5 |
Qatar Airways |
1,373 |
4.0% |
|
OTHERS |
1,003 |
2.9 % |
|
|
TOTAL |
25,251 |
- |
|
On the link from Lahore, PIA holds a much stronger position with a 55.1 per cent share of the total traffic. Again, it is the Gulf airlines that offer the main competition with Etihad Airways and Kuwait Airways holding the second and third position in the analysis.
Looking at the Pakistan to UK market in more detail, PIA already dominates traffic between the two countries and the additional weekly frequency will help boost its share. Approximately 502,000 O&D passengers travelled between the two countries in the past year with PIA handling more than 70 per cent of this traffic. Alongside five weekly flights to Manchester from Islamabad and Lahore, it currently offers 12 flights per week to London Heathrow from Islamabad, Karachi and Lahore, four flights per week to Birmingham from Islamabad and two flights per week to Leeds Bradford from the same city.
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NOTE: Schedule data extracted from Flightbase for week commencing April 14, 2011; Traffic data extracted from IATA BSP system for the year ending January 2011.
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