You’re sick of your job, you’re tired of Karachi’s traffic, and you just want to get as far away as possible. Where do you go? Well the farthest place you could get to from Karachi is Pias in Peru. All it would take is a three-hour Qatar Airways flight to Doha, followed by a layover before a flight to Madrid, where you would have another layover. Another three hour flight later you would find yourself in Peru, except you’d be in Lima. To get to Pias, you would then board a domestic flight and finally make it as far away from Karachi as you possibly could.
Easy-peasy, right? Not quite – but definitely possible. And that is sort of the point. Even though it was a hectic process (it would take you around 35 hours) Pakistan has better air-connectivity than one might think. The country is ranked 45th on the Air Connectivity Index of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) out of 219 total rankings, and has climbed up from 52nd spot in 2009. Compared to countries with similar or greater GDPs, Pakistan ranks better than Bangladesh, Iran and Sri Lanka for air connectivity.
Why does this index matter? Because global air travel is paramount to unlock a country’s economic potential by increasing foreign investment and flow of human capital, and, of course, tourism. No airport in Pakistan is considered a “connectivity hub.” However, because of a large expat population and a business class with deep ties to the Middle East, Pakistan’s access to the rest of the world is doing pretty well. Profit looks at how well connected Pakistan is, and why it matters.
What does air connectivity count for?
Much like Olympic medals, human rights violations, and war crimes, the world leaders in global air traffic are the United States of America and China, maintaining the first and second spots as most connected for at least the past decade. Japan comes in third after them.
A country that is well connected to various destinations has better odds at fostering exchange of goods and services, investment and ideas, labor force, job creation, and of course tourists. In addition, more airport connectivity means more labor and earning opportunities associated with the sector. For Pakistan, increased connectivity also improves travel experience by reducing air travel time which also makes it a better tourist destination.
Airport connectivity is defined as the sum of direct and indirect connectivity of an airport. It is a scale to see the level of how well an airport is connected to the rest of the world in the form of direct flights to and from destinations, or indirect connections through other airports. The content in this publication is expensive to produce. But unlike other journalistic outfits, business publications have to cover the very organizations that directly give them advertisements. Hence, this large source of revenue, which is the lifeblood of other media houses, is severely compromised on account of Profit’s no-compromise policy when it comes to our reporting. No wonder, Profit has lost multiple ad deals, worth tens of millions of rupees, due to stories that held big businesses to account. Hence, for our work to continue unfettered, it must be supported by discerning readers who know the value of quality business journalism, not just for the economy but for the society as a whole.To read the full article, subscribe and support independent business journalism in Pakistan
Thanks to the Middle East carriers that Pakistan is well connected. Not because of PIA.
No thanks to PIA. Bigger no thanks to PPP govt which like most state organisations destroyed PIA with mass recruitment (job=votes). Credit goes to Pakistani expatriates who work hard overseas especially labourers in Middle East due to whom these Middle East carriers serve Pakistan as they mostly serve as customers. Hopefully once we raise our minimum criteria for evaluation and get rid of the toxic culture of nepotism and abuse of power then we as a nation and our airlines can prosper. We have seen tragedies in our airline industry whereby “senior pilot or captain” abused their authority due to their arrogance and we saw Air Blue crash into Margalla hills and PIA in Karachi 😔. Similar culture in Pakistan is detrimental to all organisations including state-owned ZTBL where the current President seems to think its his family empire and he can hire, promote, or dismiss whoever he personally likes or has a grudge against (non-yes-men). Where is the accountability PTI?? Save Pakistan from this toxic culture of corruption, nepotism and abuse of power.