Nasair link reverses flight from
Pakistan By Syed Fazl-e-Haider
KARACHI, Pakistan - Nasair, a Saudi
Arabia-based low-cost airline and the country's
first private carrier, on June 18 began flights
between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, with its first
flight from Riyadh to Karachi.
Nasair’s
initial target is the over 200,000 pilgrims, of a
total of 1.6 million people, travelling between
Pakistan and Saudi Arabia each year. It plans to
extend its reach to other Pakistani cities,
including Lahore, Islamabad and Peshawar.
The arrival of Nasair is a reversal of the
retreat from strife-torn Pakistan by international
carriers. Singapore Airlines rolled back its
operations in the South Asian country last year
due to security threats and an economic slowdown,
while British Airways stopped flights in 2008 just
months after German airline Lufthansa curtailed
flights to Karachi. That left a near monopoly for state-run
Pakistan International
Airlines (PIA), which now may lose some customers
to Nasair.
Karachi is the 19th
international destination for Nasair, which
although low cost offers passengers a full array
of services, including a competitive fare, online
booking, seat selection and online excess baggage
services. Speaking at the launching ceremony,
Nasair sales director Turki Al Jawini recognized
the importance of the southern Pakistani city, the
country's commercial center, as a regional hub.
"We assessed the growing number of
passengers and hence we are announcing our 19th
and 20th international destinations - Karachi and
Lahore," The Express Tribune reported Al Jawini as
saying.
Nasair plans daily flights from
Karachi and Lahore to Jeddah and Riyadh with an
advanced fleet of Airbus A320, offering
introductory fares of 499 Saudi riyals (US$133)
inclusive of taxes.
Nasair operates 500
flights on 18 international and six domestic
routes. In the past three years, the airline has
grown its business 45% annually, as it introduced
an average of five new international destinations
each year. Since its inception in 2007, Nasair has
carried more than 5 million passengers, its
aircraft utilization increasing from six hours per
day in 2008 to 12 hours this year.
Around
5.7 million people travel with Pakistan's national
carrier, PIA, each year, of which 0.8 million, or
14%, travel to Saudi Arabia. Nasair will look to
compete on price to attract passengers from
existing operators, including Saudi Arabian
Airlines, while further stimulating the market.
Nasair's introductory fare of 11,477
rupees inclusive of all taxes, is less than
one-quarter of PIA's fares, which range between
55,000 rupees (Karachi to Saudi Arabia) and 65,000
rupees (Islamabad to Saudi Arabia).
Loss-making PIA is reliant on government
funds. Its accumulated losses were 96.6 billion
rupees (US$1.1 billion) as of March 2011, up from
73 billion rupees in 2008. Revenues last year were
12 billion rupees below target at 107.5 billion
rupees, while fuel and oil costs surged to 44.7
billion rupees from 31.5 billion rupees a year
earlier.
Despite the advent of private
carriers in Pakistan in the early 1990s, the
government has done little to foster the local
aviation industry, although it pays 1 billion
rupees in taxes and more than 700 travel agencies
operate in the country. Only 18 out of 42 airports
are functional and just nine are equipped to cater
to international traffic.
The war on
terror has had devastating effects on the travel
business, as many countries have declared Pakistan
an unsafe area, with even hardier business
visitors deterred by frequent news of bomb blasts
and suicide attacks.
Twenty-nine foreign
airlines closed their offices in Pakistan after
US-led attacks against the Taliban and al-Qaeda in
Afghanistan following the September 2001 attacks
on New York. Though there are no direct flights to
the US from Pakistan, the PIA intensified security
checks for United States-bound passengers last
year, and it is becoming more difficult and taking
longer for Pakistanis to obtain visas to visit
Western countries.
The arrival of Nasair
in Pakistan expands the network of links between
the two countries. Saudi Arabia had long funded
madrassas, or religious schools, in Pakistan, with
the number proliferating in recent years, while
thousands of Pakistani soldiers and mercenaries
are hired by Riyadh for both internal and external
security roles. (See Pakistan
marches to Saudi tune, Asia Times Online, June
3, 2011).
Syed Fazl-e-Haider
(http://www.syedfazlehaider.com) is a
development analyst in Pakistan. He is the author
of many books, including The Economic
Development of Balochistan (2004). He can be
contacted at sfazlehaider05@yahoo.com.
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