Karachi: Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has added five new destinations – four in Australia and one in Europe – as part of its code sharing agreement with Etihad Airways, said a PIA hand-out on Thursday.
Airlines sign such code sharing agreements for those destinations where they do not operate, allowing passengers to travel on their tickets, added the hand-out.
The new stations include Sydney, Perth, Melbourne, Brisbane and Zurich.
In June 2015, PIA signed the code sharing agreement with Etihad Airways for several destinations in Europe, North America, Eastern Africa and Middle East including Rome, Madrid, Athens, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Washington, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Nairobi and Amman.
“With this code share arrangement, passengers traveling to the US would now be able to avail the facility of immigration at Terminal 1 of Abu Dhabi airport, which would save them from going through the immigration procedure at US airports,” said the hand-out further.
PIA already has made such code sharing arrangements with the Turkish Airlines, China Southern Airlines and Thai Airways. Under such agreements, PIA also lifts passengers of partner airlines to destinations where they do not operate.
Accoding to the Economic Survey 2015-16, PIA posted a growth of 5.5% in passenger revenue while the revenue hours increased to 111,455 hours during 2015 compared to 101,556 hours flown in 2014.
“Strong growth was witnessed in the Asian and Middle East markets while profits were highest for North America, followed by Asia Pacific,” it added.
