India-based Airlines - PNQ

From what I have read and heard, LH is doing reasonably well flying to and from PNQ (all the way to FRA).

I wonder why other airlines don't want to tap into PNQ with hubs which are closer by like AUH, DXB, DOH (maybe even RUH or JED) on one side and SIN, BKK, KUL on the other.

A narrow body can surely fly to any of these hubs. Would there by substantial feed for long haul flights from there forward?

It seems VW/Skoda and Mercedes are the main drivers of the business for LH, besides the usual IT suspects. More here:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/miles-more-lufthansa-austrian-swiss-other-partners/804886-lh-pnq-pune-india-merged.html

PNQ is a critical military aerodrome and only provides a 8700ft runway for civil operations, probably not really interesting to land widebodies on that one.... A330 probably can manage with 8000+ft, but factor in the warm/hot climate and the rains... that said QR operates a few flights into india on A320s, so PNQ could have been an option.

pnq is a small airport & has a number of international flights but i'm not sure if this airport can handle more than that....perhaps when they open the new airport here there would be a little more international traffic....

Afaik only 2 international flights - pnq-fra (LH) and pnq-dxb (ai express)

The LH is actually a Privat Air plane. I wish there were more intl flights, but the military airport and the smallness seem to be the issues. The LH flight maybe the longest narrow body flight in the world. It is still 50% biz class ( 50% of plane volume I mean). The economy seems more cramped than usual. Staff is ex sabena.

The problem is if it gets cancelled and you get stranded. Happened to me once. Had to scramble and take KF and finnair combination out.

Most people in Pune drive to Mumbai to fly intl. I try to connect via Delhi.

New airport - I don't think any concrete progress is going on, is it? Just talk.

New airport - I don't think any concrete progress is going on, is it? Just talk.

not too sure....i was told the plans were approved but no clue if construction has started or if/when it will start....

The flight does stop somewhere enroute for refueling. Can't remember exactly where.

The flight does stop somewhere enroute for refueling. Can't remember exactly where.
Bucharest..

Only stops when going pnq-fra. Not when going fra-pnq. Till a few months back the stop was Tbilisi now it's Bucharest.

The fuel stop in BUH/TBS is because of the max TOW restrictions on the short(er) runway in PNQ.

TK, RJ could possiblly make PNQ work and connnect onwards to Europe and America. And if the fares are competitive, I for one would certainly prefer flying out of PNQ directly rather than the 4 hour drive to BOM. Connections via DEL usually require interline and are usually much more expensive.

PNQ is slot restricted. Indian Air Force has denied all requests for additional international slot allocations recently, with the exception of 1 IX application which they rejected after going through the motions to avoid MoCA's wrath.

However, IAF has been getting progressively more liberal with commerical aerodome usage - the NOTAM between 19:55 and 22:05 was recently lifted, and 6 more slot pairs were allocated recently. With that, 6E is launching DEL/HYD, SG is launching DEL/COK, and 9W is launching MAA. It is unclear who the final slot pair is going to.

The fuel stop in BUH/TBS is because of the max TOW restrictions on the short(er) runway in PNQ.
Ah thanks.. I always wondered why it never stopped FRA-PNQ..

Competitive to what? LH is usually expensive and still full. Via Delhi is usually cheaper than LH out of PNQ Plus you can take the 1910 (I think 9w220?) to Delhi so leave at a decent hour vs 5:00 AM for LH.

Also, if you take a car to Mumbai, add the expense plus the added stress of traffic, dangerous highway etc. and del these days is better to transit than mum.

I usually fly out of pnq, take ba from del and on my way back fly into mum using the ba flight which reaches 1115 hrs. Highway is better during the day than night. Getting back to pnq via Delhi means a lot more hours.

Competitive to fares out of BOM I meant. If tickets from PNQ-XXX-EUR/USA are in the same range as or even a little more expensive than BOM-XXX-EUR/USA, then it sure makes sense for a lot of people to fly directly out of PNQ even with slightly higher fares. Also, the catchment area for PNQ will includes many parts of the state (from where people usually go to BOM). With the right sized aircraft and good onwards connections an international airline should be able to make this work.

With that, 6E is launching DEL/HYD, SG is launching DEL/COK, and 9W is launching MAA. It is unclear who the final slot pair is going to.

That is good. Do you know when these start? The 9W MAA flight will create connections options with 9W interline partners out of MAA.

The SG flight is actually starting 2moro. Leaves pnq at 2105 and reaches Del at 2310