airblue

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airblue is a private airline based in Karachi, Pakistan. It is Pakistan's second largest airline with a 20% share of the domestic market.^[2]. Airblue operates scheduled flights operating 30 daily services linking seven domestic destinations and international services to Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Muscat and Manchester. It carried 1.4 million passengers on domestic flights in the 2006-07 fiscal year.^[3] Its main base is Jinnah International Airport, Karachi. Airblue makes a fuel stop at Trabzon in Turkey when flying to and from Manchester. This route is the longest route operated by an Airbus A321 aircraft in the world, and the longest scheduled route operated by an Airbus narrowbody aircraft (excluding the Airbus A319LR).^[4]

History

The airline was established in 2003 and started operations on 18 June 2004 with 3 leased Airbus A320-200 aircraft serving Karachi-Lahore and Karachi-Islamabad with three daily flights in each direction. The airline was inaugurated by the then Prime Minister of Pakistan, Shaukat Aziz.
During the first year the airline became very popular, which allowed the airline to compete directly with the flag carrier PIA and the two other private carriers. This allowed the airline to expand into more cities in Pakistan including Peshawar, Quetta and Nawabshah. On August 14, 2005 (Pakistan's 58th Independence Day) Airblue launched its first international flight from Karachi to Dubai