sadiqhassan

I have always wondered why EK's flights to Karachi are always delayed. I think it seems to be something to do with scheduling. According to flight stats:

Dubai to Karachi

EK604 is ontime 42% of the time with a 30 minute average delay.
EK600 is ontime 31% of the time with a 37 minute average delay.
EK606 is ontime 35% of the time with a 41 minute average delay.
EK602 is ontime 34% of the time with a 47 minute average delay.

Then... all flights in Karachi have extremely tight turnarounds (604/605 is ~1h 5, EK600/601 is ~1h 15 (usually on a fully loaded 3 class 773!) EK606/607 is ~1h 15 and EK602/603 is ~1h 25)

Karachi to Dubai

EK605 is ontime 14% of the time with a 39 minute average delay.
EK601 is ontime 8% of the time with a 51 minute average delay.
EK607 in ontime 20% of the time with a 43 minute average delay.
EK603 is ontime 6(!)% of the time with a 54 minute average delay.

I know this is to ensure the flights arrive during the main departure banks but this seems to be getting a bit ridiculous. It seem that EK badly needs to re-schedule its flights. I know that EK has a fleet shortage and long turnarounds affect profitability but doesn't EK end up losing money after it has to pay for hotels for the dozens of people who misconnect everyday?

I am not sure how difficult it is to get slot / how much aircraft availability there is, but it seems that a schedule like this would be better:

EK604 Dep Dubai 2200 Arr Karachi 0110+1
EK605 Dep Karachi 0505 Arr Dubai 0625

EK600 Dep Dubai 0345 Arr Karachi 0700
EK601 Dep Karachi 0830 Arr Dubai 0945

EK606 Dep Dubai 0830 Arr Karachi 1130
EK607 Dep Karachi 1240 Arr Dubai 1350

EK602 Dep Dubai 1815 Arr Karachi 2130
EK603 Dep Karachi 2300 Arr Dubai 0020+1

This will benefit North American pax because of the 2200 dep 2200 ex Dubai and pax arriving from Europe will still be able to benefit from the 0345 departure to Karachi. (This is similar to the departure times of flights to Indian cities such as DEL,BOM,HYD,COK etc.)

Currently EK600 is almost always delayed by late pax bound from Europe. If EK combined 600 and 606 to make a departure at 0830, most pax will be able to connect comfortably. EK601 will remain a good O/D flight. It will no longer connect to some afternoon departure flights to European cities such as LHR, but EK605 will now allow connections to EK001 to Heathrow + connections to cities such as GLA and NCL which previously required the pax to fly on EK603 and overnight in Dubai.

EK602/603 seems fine at it is, it just needs to be readjusted to reflect the actual time that it takes gate to gate. EK603 seems to be delayed regardless of whether it leaves KHI on time or not.

Does anyone know why EK's current Karachi schedule is so tight? Surely EK now realizes that it cannot make such a schedule work?

Cheers,

flyboy777

You bring up an interesting issue. Have you tried contacting Emirates? I don't think that EK600 & EK606 should be combined becuase they both cover 2 of the largest waves of EK traffic. If EK600 disappeared, then the pax from the European flights would have to wait around all night after arriving at around midnight. EK600 fills this role. Equally, EK606 shouldn't disappear because it has better times for the O&D pax & connects with the traffic from the Far East.

FlyEK

It's quite simple, really. ^

DXB-KHI:

Passengers lost in Duty Free.
I don't know what is it with KHI pax, but there are always about 40 missing at departure time. Have you ever noticed a man with a walkie-talkie going through the shops and calling out "EK Karachi! EK Karachi".

They do manage to saunter down to the aircraft about half an hour later though, with their red and white bags full of something.

And EK waits for them. If they got left one or two times, they'd show up on time the third time.

KHI-DXB:
Reactionary delay due late equipment arrival, combined with chronic unrealistic block times that do not account for seasonal wind variations and taxi time.

sadiqhassan

Yes! I agree completely. This happens all the time. This, coupled with the fact that EK600/604 are almost always at remote stands means that the departure gets delayed further and further. They really need to start leaving pax behind. EK has such a monopoly to KHI (more or less) than the pax can't really switch carriers. Basically, "Pakistani timing" means that you arrive well after the "posted" time.

The funny thing is that I have found the flights ex KHI to usually depart on time considering the late arrival from Dubai (i.e. the turn around time in KHI was as scheduled) but the flights are still delayed because the flying time alone is longer than the scheduled time!

Cheers,

nadeem

Despite living in Lahore, I fly into and out of KHI about 12/15 times per annum and can honestly say, that the majority of inbound and outbound flights have been fine...By that, only a few minutes late out from KHI, and I dont think I can say ever late by 20 or so mins in from DXB.

My last trip was a few weeks ago out from KHI to MAN and it was 15 mins late going out....which was bearable, as MAN - DXB seems to be rarely out on time.

FlyEK

The ground and engineering staff in KHI is pretty good Sadiq, so they can do quick turns. Besides pax there are on time as duty free shops sell mostly leather jackets and it's not a far walk.

Nadeem you must have gotten lucky and been on the very few flights where the airline will not wait for the late people and offload them and their baggage ahead of time. The dispatchers who make those decisions are few and far in between.

nadeem

Yeah, thats a fair point to make....Maybe I was lucky...but there's the commentators curse!

sadiqhassan

I have yet to be on a flight that wasn't delayed by fewer than 30 minutes, and I fly DXB-KHI quite a few (6+) times a year. In KHI, I now check the departure time from DXB before leaving the airport and plan when to leave for the airport accordingly.

Cheers,

FlyEK

That's the best thing to do with all EK flights.

Of course when you're in DXB, unless you have access to the company flight tracker, there's no telling where the previous flight is coming from.

PhlyingRPh

Hmm, I don't fly EK that frequently and hadn't really noticed a big problem w/ the KHI flights.

However, I did an EK606/607 turnaround at the end of Dec (the day after BB had her chips). 606 was 30 mins late leaving DXB but still arrived at the gate in KHI 5 mins ahead of schedule. Meanwhile the return (607) that afternoon left KHI about 90 mins late and arrived in DXB about an hour behind schedule.