The report indicates that PIA will be returning six of it's twelve Airbus 310s which are leased while it is common knowledge that the six Boeing 737-300s in PIA's fleet are awaiting retirement as soon as the airline can find a decent substitute.
To me it appears that these Airbus 320s are the substitutes PIA has in mind.
I am no expert in the field of airline business, nor am I up to date on PIA's exact economic condition but I know it's not good and the airline has very limited options at this point.
However, I don't see this selection very positive given that the airline will retire six out of twelve medium to long haul planes which are the Airbus 310s.
I also have heard of ill choices made by PIA in the past such as their attempt to sell over their Boeing 707s at the price of a brand new 707s which from what hear failed to sell because of this.
Plus PIA has made many other decisions harmful to it's growth such as the attempt to give out European and North American destinations to it's code share partner Turkish Airlines/Turk Hava Yollari (THY).
So given this, I feel PIA may be in for another ill fated choice. Firstly replacing six Airbus 310s with Airbus 320s is unsuitable assuming such a plan is in phase.
The A310 has a much larger seating capacity than the A320 and serves a medium to long haul market.
Destinations currently served by the A310 are those in Europe, especially the UK. The other destinations served by this aircraft are in the Middle East and East Asia. All the mentioned routes serve a sizable number of one to two hundred passengers per flight, something the A320 is incapable of supporting both in numbers and in range.
Even the use of the A321 aircraft (an extended version of the A320) will not be able to act as a substitute for the A310s.
On domestic routes in Pakistan as well as regional routes it would be possible to use A321s as substitutes/replacements for the A310s, but for longer haul routes it doesn't appear profitable at all.
The A320s can be excellent replacements for PIA's aging B737 fleet, but definitely not the A310s. Both the B737 and A320 serve the same short and medium haul market.
To give a better understanding I link the two aircraft below.
The Airbus 310-300 of PIA's fleet:
PIA currently possesses twelve of these planes. Six of them are owned while the other six are leased. The A310s have been described as the "backbone of PIA."
Compare the plane pictured above to the much smaller A320 pictured below:
As readers can see the A320 is smaller than the A310 and has a much shorter range. Below is a picture of PIA's B737-300s currently in service, but in desperate need of replacement:
This is partially why I don't favor A320s as new inductions into PIA's fleet. If I were given the choice of selecting aircraft to upgrade PIA's fleet, my choices would be replacing the B737-300s with 737 next generation aircraft most preferably 737-800s or 737-900ERs.
Below are the images of the two mentioned planes.
The B737-800:
The B737-900ER:
The reason for my preference in opting for the 737 next generations is their blended wiglets and sharper turbo fans which will help save fuel even though not by much. But since Pakistan suffers from high fuel consumption due to overpopulation, these next generation 737s are the best replacements for the current 737s over the A320s.
The other good reasons for inducting these planes are they offer less maintenance costs than most Airbus aircraft.
Though the next generation 737s came without winglets in their early years, they are mostly sold now with them on. However the main obstacle in inducting these aircraft are their different control configurations that will require spending on training hours for PIA pilots to learn how to fly.
Most Airbuses on the other hand have very similar control configurations which means less time and money spent on training pilots when switching them over from one Airbus to another. This is the best pro for inducting A320s and/or A321s in PIA's fleet, especially on domestic and regional routes such as Gulf destinations.
My overall re-planning of PIA's fleet would be to replace the B737-300s with A320s and/or A321s on domestic and regional routes currently served by the 737s. But a better replacement would be the the A320neo which could save fuel like the next generation 737s.
For the A310 planes I would opt for the A330-200.
As for the 747-300s in PIA's fleet, they don't require immediate replacement, but eventually, I would opt for the 747-8, which is pictured above in imaginary PIA livery as the header image for this aviation blog of mine.
For shorter haul routes PIA's ATR-42s seem to be satisfactory, however with the growing demand I would opt for ATR-72s or the Dash-8 Q400 as future choices.
So overall here is my personal choice of fleet planning for PIA:
-Dash-8 Q400 or ATR-72 to add to or replace current ATR-42.
-747-8 to eventually replace current 747-300.
-A330-200 to replace current A310-300.
-737-800 and/or 737-900ER to replace 737-300. My second options would be A320neo or regular A320 and/or A321 aircraft.
The budget to get such a fleet is probably out of the question but that is an entirely different issue.
Also out of the question is replacing the Boeing 777s in PIA's fleet as they are still relatively new and don't require replacement for at least twenty more years.
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