Air Blue

Air Blue Limited:-

Airblue Limited (styled as airblue) is a private airline with its head office on the 12th floor of the Islamabad Stock Exchange (ISE) Towers in Islamabad, Pakistan.[2] It is Pakistan's second largest airline with over 30% share of the domestic market.[3] Airblue operates scheduled flights operating 30 daily services linking four 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.

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.[citation needed]

During the first year the airline became very popular[4], 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 14 August 2005 (Pakistan's 58th Independence Day) Airblue launched its first international flight from Karachi to Dubai. On June 4, 2007, Airblue launched its inaugural flight to Manchester using the Airbus A321.[5]

Previously the airline's head office was on the ground floor of the Saudi Pak Building in Islamabad.[6]

Destinations:-

Airblue serves the following destinations (at September 2010). [7]. Four were suspended prior to 2008, all UK flights have a scheduled fuel stop at Trabzon, in Turkey, both ways, in the past Ankara was used for this