Qatar Airways donates Airbus to Pakistan

[Neo]

Qatar Airways donates Airbus to Pakistan

ISLAMABAD (February 26 2007): Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has said Pakistan and Qatar are bound in ties of common faith and culture, have shared perceptions and vision and the two countries are keen to further strengthen the economic and trade ties for which there is a great potential.

The Prime Minister was talking to the chief executive officer of Qatar Airways Akbar Al Baker who called on him here on Sunday. The Prime Minister thanked the government of Qatar and Qatar Airways for donating Airbus A-310 to Pakistan and said this gesture is a symbol of close existing ties. The aircraft was handed over by the Qatar Airline to Pakistan on February 25.

The Prime Minister said a large number of Pakistanis working in Qatar are contributing to its development and the government wants to increase the number of Pakistanis working there.

The Prime Minister said the progress made by Qatar Airlines in a short span of time is commendable. He said PIA and Qatar Airlines should increase cooperation to share the best practices.

The meeting was attended among others by Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Muhammad Ali Durrani, Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Tariq Azeem, special assistant to the Prime Minister Commander Khalil-ur-Rehman and senior officials.

http://www.brecorder.com/index.php?id=532711&currPageNo=1&query=&search=&term=&supDate=

 

[falcone]

From what I gathered from the report, I could not tell who received this A-310. Do you know if this A-310 is for PIA or for the PAF (if for the PAF, then probably for the PM and for Musharraf to use instead of them using a PIA A-310 from the PIA fleet)?

 

[Adux]

Whats with the "Donation"

 

[Muradk]

yeh whats with the donation I did;nt know we had such good relations with them.

 

[A.Rahman]

yeh whats with the donation I did;nt know we had such good relations with them.

A310 is reaching the end of its market life as a passenger and cargo aircraft.

There have been no new A310 passenger orders since the late 1990s, and only a few freighter orders remain.

The A310 (along with the A300) will cease production in July of 2007.

Freighter sales are to be fulfilled by a new A330-200F derivative

 

[Introvert]

From what I gathered from the report, I could not tell who received this A-310. Do you know if this A-310 is for PIA or for the PAF

Qatar donates Airbus to PAF​

ISLAMABAD: The Airbus A-310, which was being used by the Qatar Airways for VIP flights, was handed over to the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) at a simple ceremony held at the Chaklala Air Base on Sunday.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Qatar Airways, Akhtar Abbas and Air Commodore Junaid signed the documents to receive the gift from Qatar to Pakistan Air Force on behalf of their respective countries.

The aircraft, flown to Pakistan by crew of Qatar Airways along with the CEO Qatar Airways, was received at the Chaklala Air Base by Ambassador of Qatar in Pakistan Hamad Al-Hinzab and officials of the PAF, including Air Commodore Junaid and Air Commodore Sarfaraz and Base Commander PAF Chaklala Air Base Air Commodore Rameez-ul- Hasan.

The Airbus A-310 is fully equipped with all the modern facilities and it has been donated to the PAF with all the required and essential facilities and ready for flight without additional changes. The staff of the Qatar Airways will also be at the disposal of the PAF for necessary training and explaining the gadgets and equipment installed in the aircraft.
http://thenews.jang.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=6138

 

[Lahori paa jee]

Qatar Airways donates Airbus to Pakistan

ISLAMABAD (February 26 2007): Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has said Pakistan and Qatar are bound in ties of common faith and culture, have shared perceptions and vision and the two countries are keen to further strengthen the economic and trade ties for which there is a great potential.

The Prime Minister was talking to the chief executive officer of Qatar Airways Akbar Al Baker who called on him here on Sunday. The Prime Minister thanked the government of Qatar and Qatar Airways for donating Airbus A-310 to Pakistan and said this gesture is a symbol of close existing ties. The aircraft was handed over by the Qatar Airline to Pakistan on February 25.

The Prime Minister said a large number of Pakistanis working in Qatar are contributing to its development and the government wants to increase the number of Pakistanis working there.

The Prime Minister said the progress made by Qatar Airlines in a short span of time is commendable. He said PIA and Qatar Airlines should increase cooperation to share the best practices.

The meeting was attended among others by Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Muhammad Ali Durrani, Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Tariq Azeem, special assistant to the Prime Minister Commander Khalil-ur-Rehman and senior officials.

http://www.brecorder.com/index.php?id=532711&currPageNo=1&query=&search=&term=&supDate=

A few months back it was being said that government is planning to buy a special plane for Musharraf as he had to visit foreign countries often and hisplans disturb the PIA schedules. This plane seems to be the one.

Interestingly Shaukat Aziz has presented it as a gift from Qatar. what a joke

 

[kidwaibhai]

hey does this donation has anything to do with the europeans not allowing some plans in their airspace cauz of low level of maintance

 

[niaz]

Qatar Airways is being advertised as a "Five Star" airline. Presumably they want to emulate the Emirates success by using brand new aircraft on all the routes. Donating a good condition aircraft but not "new"; not only removes a used plane from the Qatar Airways system but also is a very generous act. Pakistan should be thankful for having considerate friends.

 

[Abs]

hey does this donation has anything to do with the europeans not allowing some plans in their airspace cauz of low level of maintance

the europeans are having problems with PIA airplanes, this donation is for PAF and VIP travel seperate from PIA. plus the government was planning to aquire a VIP plane some months back.
the plane will also be kitted out with facilities such as conference room etc, for VIP travel, ready to fly.

 

[Abs]

Whats with the "Donation"

yeh whats with the donation

Aircraft gifted by Qatar to be used by PM, president’


ISLAMABAD, Feb 26: An aircraft gifted by Qatar would be used by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and President Gen Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan Air Force (PAF) spokesman said on Monday.

The Airbus A-310-304, which was part of Qatar’s fleet, was handed over to Pakistan on Sunday.

Chief Executive Officer of Qatar Airways Akbar Al Baker came to Pakistan especially to hand over the aircraft.

Mr Aziz accepted the gift saying the gesture of the Qatar government was a symbol of close ties and the desire of both the countries to strengthen their relations. The 89-seat aircraft is equipped with facilities like conference room.

The aircraft would most likely carry the PAF livery, PAF spokesman Air Commodore Sarfaraz Ahmed Khan said, adding that the operational details were being worked out.

President Musharraf is already having a Gulfstream for his travel. However, for overseas VVIP tours an Airbus with tail number AP-BEC was mostly spared from Pakistan International Airline’s fleet.

The gift comes at a time when Qatar is pressing for additional flights to several Pakistani destinations, one of its longstanding demands. Qatar Airways, which is aggressively enhancing its international operations, is currently having 13 flights to Pakistan.

small sacrafice for what could make them a lot of money increasing flights to pakistan.

 

[falcone]

Aircraft gifted by Qatar to be used by PM, president’

AHA! Just as I suspected!

 

[Neo]

From what I gathered from the report, I could not tell who received this A-310. Do you know if this A-310 is for PIA or for the PAF (if for the PAF, then probably for the PM and for Musharraf to use instead of them using a PIA A-310 from the PIA fleet)?

The aircraft will be used and operated by PAF only. It doesn't have the standard commercial cabin or other facilities nor the configuration to fit PIA's fleet.

The A310 VIP carries 89 passangers, PIA's fleet of nine Airbus A310-312's have a configuration of 200 passengers in two classes.

 

[Neo]

hey does this donation has anything to do with the europeans not allowing some plans in their airspace cauz of low level of maintance

No it doesn't.
As Rahman explained already the A310 is a relatively old design and its being replaced by other Airbus models such as A330-200 or A321-200, latter being the narrow body alternative.

PIA already operates nine A310-312's, wich are almost the same age as this Qatari VIP variant.

 

[Neo]

Qatar Airways is being advertised as a "Five Star" airline. Presumably they want to emulate the Emirates success by using brand new aircraft on all the routes.

I second that.

Qatar Airways is envolved in a fierce competition with Emirates and the new comer Etihad to become regions best and leading airline. To achive that goal many government subsidies are being pumped into these airlines to have pretigious numbers and milestones.

One of these pretigious compaign is to advertise as region's youngest fleet. I believe Emirates planes are average 6 years old, Qatar is closing gap by disposing oldest aircraft.