This has reference to Mr Shazad Khalil's letter published in Business Recorder titled "Poor Air Cargo services" dated 21 June 2007. To cater to the demand of upcountry export markets.
PIA on weekly basis is operating five flights for USA/ Canada, seven flights for UK, seven flights for Europe, twenty flights for Gulf and Saudi Arabia, and four flights for South Asian region from Lahore alone.
Similarly from Islamabad, PIA operates four weekly flights for USA/Canada, fifteen weekly flights for UK, six weekly flights for Europe, four weekly flights for Far East and ten weekly flights for the Gulf and Saudi Arabia region. In addition, 14 weekly flights are operated for Gulf - Saudi Arabia and one weekly flight for UK from Peshawar.
PIA has ample capacity available out of Lahore, Islamabad and Peshawar to uplift international cargo.Overflow of export cargo is positioned to Karachi without any extra cost to the shippers.
Therefore the distance to Karachi has no significance. As cargo is handled inside the bonded area, hence the law and order situation in Karachi is not relevant. Another important fact to be considered is that Karachi alone contributes over 40% of the total air cargo export of the country through its export commodities such as garments, leather, carpets etc. Therefore the flights ex-Karachi are just as important.
PIA does not own dedicated cargo aircraft and is currently chartering freighter aircraft, due to heavy cost its operational base is at Karachi and operated through Lahore and Islamabad on commercial demand. However, if freighters are inducted in to its fleet at a later stage, PIA will consider starting regular dedicated cargo flights ex/to Sialkot subject to sufficient load in both directions.
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