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Pakistan's AirBlue to Launch Kuala Lumpur Flight in 2009 |
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By P.Vijian NEW DELHI, Sept 11 (Bernama) -- Airblue, a leading private Pakistani airline, is finalising preparations to launch direct flights to Kuala Lumpur (KL) by mid-2009 to tap the increasing tourists and migrant workers traffic flow. "After evaluation, we found that Malaysia is a potential market for us. In the past one year, more tourists and workers are going to Kuala Lumpur and when you combine both these segments, there is a lot of growth," Airblue general manager for marketing Sarosh Bhatti told Bernama. An estimated 50,000 Pakistanis visited Malaysia last year and about 10,000 workers from the South Asian nation are currently employed in Malaysian companies. He added that Airblue is prepared to compete with established national carriers plying the KL-Pakistan route. Bhatti disclosed that the carrier ordered 14 new Airbus A320 aircraft that are expected to arrive by end of this year and these fuel-efficient planes would be used for the proposed KL route. "In the next two months we will be able to decide the number of flights to Kuala Lumpur and whether these flights will be from Karachi or Lahore," he said. The Karachi-based airline launched its operations in 2004. By 2007, it carried one million passengers on its domestic flights, which is nearly 40 per cent of Pakistan's passenger traffic. "Our market share for Islamabad to Manchester is 49 per cent, Dubai is 35 per cent and domestic market is about 40 per cent. This gives an indication that we are a dominant player in Pakistan," said Bhatti. Ranked to be the fastest growing airline in Pakistan, the carrier is targeting major cities. A year ago, it began operating the Islamabad-Manchester route. It has also announced the launch of its Lahore-Muscat flight later this September. |
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