777way From Pakistan, joined Dec 2005, 5198 posts, RR: 4 Posted (5 years 5 months 2 weeks 11 hours ago) and read 1665 times:
Sialkot International Airport was inaugurated by the president yesterday, PIA fly there just twice weekly with a 737 from Karachi with plans for Dubai and Mnachester links from next year, Emirates are also rumored to be adding it to their network including SkyCargo, Lufthansa Cargo have also shown interest in serving the city http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sialkot_International_Airport
AZO From United States of America, joined Jun 2002, 765 posts, RR: 1 Reply 1, posted (5 years 5 months 1 week 6 days 22 hours ago) and read 1501 times:
I don't know much about this project or even the area, but I think its pretty cool that a community without even a GA airport (as I understand it this was) can build their own airport and have immediate demand/plans for scheduled service. Congrats to Sialkot.
Cornish From United Kingdom, joined Feb 2005, 8187 posts, RR: 56 Reply 2, posted (5 years 5 months 1 week 6 days 16 hours ago) and read 1420 times:
Quoting AZO (Reply 1): I don't know much about this project or even the area, but I think its pretty cool that a community without even a GA airport (as I understand it this was) can build their own airport and have immediate demand/plans for scheduled service. Congrats to Sialkot.
Well these days, particularly with increasing numbers of airports being funded fully or partly by private finance, it makes sense to establish whether there would be a market there or not before building such a facility.
I'm doing that with a new airport project at the moment (again where there is no other aviation facility of any kind). I've been speaking to likely carriers to establish some idea of interest in order to help build my traffic forecast for the lending banks. With a high degree of support from airlines to make the project viable this gives the banks the comfort to invest and so construction will begin shortly. There will be a two year build cycle, and during that period we will be speaking to the airlines to tie down agreements for services to commence upon opening of the airport.
Just when I thought I could see light at the end of the tunnel, it was some B*****d with a torch bringing me more work
Mahan From United States of America, joined Mar 2006, 53 posts, RR: 0 Reply 4, posted (5 years 5 months 1 week 3 days 10 hours ago) and read 1229 times:
Quoting AZO" class=quote target=_blank>AZO (Reply 1): I don't know much about this project or even the area, but I think its pretty cool that a community without even a GA airport (as I understand it this was) can build their own airport and have immediate demand/plans for scheduled service. Congrats to Sialkot.
AZO,
In South Asia, GA ( General Avaiation ) is very very limited.. Not many people own private aircraft so usually, commercial scheduled service airports are the first to be built.
Airlines I have flown - IC, 9W, KF, AI, LH, BA, LX, CO, DL, UA, SQ, MH, AA
A330243 From United States of America, joined Jul 2007, 27 posts, RR: 0 Reply 6, posted (5 years 5 months 1 week 3 days 8 hours ago) and read 1144 times:
Quoting Humberside (Reply 5): Possible destination for the likes of AirBlue and Shaheen as well?
Sialkot is one of the most affluent cities in Pakistan and a major export center. It will not be hard for Airblue or PIA to fill up the aircraft with business realted traffic KHI-Sialkot-KHI, as there is a lot of demand.
Quoting AZO (Reply 1): I don't know much about this project or even the area, but I think its pretty cool that a community without even a GA airport (as I understand it this was) can build their own airport and have immediate demand/plans for scheduled service. Congrats to Sialkot.
Where the aiport can really succeed is in air cargo. As I said above Sialkot has a lot of export-oriented industrial units and they were actually the ones who pushed for and funded the majority of this project. DHL, TCS and other companies have expressed interest in offering regular cargo services from the airport.
As for EK, Sialkot and the surronding areas have a very large expat community and combined with the business related traffic plus the massive amount of cargo, they could make it work, with lets say 3x weekly A332 service. At present, the cargo must be shipped to KHI or to LHE and sent outbound from there. This would save a lot of time and money.
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