airblue

Airblue Limited (stylized as airblue) is a private Pakistani airline with its head office on the ground floor of the Islamabad Stock Exchange (ISE) Towers in Islamabad, Pakistan. Airblue operates scheduled domestic and international flights, the latter to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. As of February 2024, the airline serves three countries and 17 routes.

== History == The airline was established in 2003 by Tariq Chaudhary, a Pakistani-American IT professional. Airblue started operations on 18 June 2004 with three leased Airbus A320-200 aircraft serving Karachi–Lahore, and Karachi–Islamabad with three daily flights in each direction. The airline was inaugurated in 2004 by Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali. thumb|An Airblue Airbus A320 family|Airbus A320-200 at [[Dubai International Airport]] thumb|A now-retired Airblue Airbus A340-300 taking off from [[Istanbul Atatürk Airport after maintenance.]] During the first year the airline became very popular, which allowed the airline to compete directly with the flag carrier Pakistan International Airlines and the two other private carriers on mostly domestic front, flying more than 400,000 passengers in the first year with a load factor of over 90%. The airline expanded its domestic network to include flights to Peshawar and Quetta. It also had to fly the routes known as socia economic routes or tertiary routes as part of the licence from Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority. Hence flights to Sukker and Nawabshah were added briefly as part of the tertiary routes under obligation.