Saturday, September 10, 2016

PIA orders 8 Boeing 787-9s

Pakistan's flag carrier i.e. PIA has officially confirmed that it has placed an order with Boeing for 8 B787-9s as part of an exchange deal.

Originally in Feb 2012, PIA firmed up an order for 5 Boeing 777-300ERs but over the past month, Boeing had offered a replacement solution for the carrier with the Boeing 787 aircraft family. After long negotiations both parties agreed to swap the 5 B77Ws for 8 B789s.

Comments:

A very smart move initiated by Boeing for PIA's long term benefit. In order to realize its full potential, PIA by 2020 should sell off its entire fleet of 6 B772ERs and replace them with the more efficient B789. In this way, its wide body fleet from 2020 onwards would consist of:

2 B77Ls + 3 B77Ws + 8 B789s  

The B789 should have a configuration of 24 J (flat beds) + 279 Y (3-3-3 layout) seating a total of 303 passengers comfortably and carrying 12 tons of cargo in the belly.

In this way each aircraft type has a specific role in terms of destination being served i.e. the 3 B77Ws should be exclusively used for LHR + JED/RUH, the B77Ls for YYZ, the B789s for JFK, EU, GCC and SE Asia + KHI-LHE/ISB shuttle at peak times. 1 B789 needs to be dedicated for 3 weekly JFK nonstop services as the cost savings incurred using this aircraft type year round versus the B77W/B77L is quite significant to the financial bottom line. 

The only thing left for PIA to do in terms of fleet modernization is to order 5 A321NEOs as this aircraft type is ideal for a variety of PAK-GCC medium demand destinations as well as SE Asia, ISC and selected domestic trunk routes at off peak times.  

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Is it worth to swap Boeing 777 with 787. As history shows that 787 always have technical issues. Do you think that PIA can handle these issues. Secondly PIA need bigger aircraft like 777 for long haul direct flights rather medium range. Let's see how it goes

Unknown said...

Is it worth to swap Boeing 777 with 787. As history shows that 787 always have technical issues. Do you think that PIA can handle these issues. Secondly PIA need bigger aircraft like 777 for long haul direct flights rather medium range. Let's see how it goes