Pakistan is pretty connected for air travel The country has more direct and indirect international flight connections than you might think.
By Ariba Shahid and Taimoor Hassan
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ou’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
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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?
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uch 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. In contrast, hub connectivity facilitates a large number of connecting flights. The footfall at the airports of a country largely include passengers transiting, in addition to travelers to that destination. While the US and China have consistently been the leaders, over time the Middle East has also emerged as a connectivity hub. No airport in Pakistan is actively considered a connectivity hub but because of a large influx of flights between Pakistan and the Middle East, connectivity has increased.
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