Achievements of Shahid Khaqan Abbasi:

Shahid Khaqan Abbasi (born 27 December 1958 ) is a Pakistani entrepreneur, electrical engineer, and a
politician. He served as the Federal Minister for Commerce in 2008.
Abbasi got his early education from Lawrence College, Murree. He then attended the University of
California, Los Angeles, where he obtained the Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering. He went
on to obtain Masters in Electrical Engineering from George Washington University, Washington, D.C.
Abbasi worked as a professional engineer in the United States and the Middle East during the 1980s.
He is politically affiliated with the centre-right party PML-N, where he is a senior leader. Shahid
Khaqan Abbasi has built the Murree-Kahuta and Kotli Sattian area as their political stronghold, he won
the general elections in 1988, 1990, 1993, and 1997, the latest one being in 2008. From 1990 to 1993, he
performed his duties as the chairman of National Assembly Standing Committee on Defence, In General
Election 2013 he is again elected as member of National Assembly and appointed as Minister of
Petroleum and Natural Resources. Abbasi is the Founder and CEO of Airblue. He also served as
Chairman and CEO of Pakistan International Airlines from 1997 to 1999.

SWOT analysis of Air Blue:

Introduction:
Air blue is a private Pakistani airline based at Jinnah International Airport Karachi. It started its operations on May 24, 2004. It
was the first private carrier of Pakistan to operate the Airbus A320 when it initially started. Air blue has been expanding rapidly
despite experiencing competition from the other three airline operators in Pakistan. The airline mainly flies on
domestic routes plus internationally to Dubai International Airport and also has plans to fly to the Gulf, UK, and USA.
Vision Statement
Our vision is to make Air blue the most admired airline in the world., Ensuring safety comes first, Providing Service
Straight From the Heart, Encouraging product leadership, Delivering superior financial returns, Providing rewarding career
opportunities.
The SWOT analysis is the process of analyzing organizations and their environments based on their strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities and threats. This includes the environmental analysis, the process of scanning the
business environment for threats and opportunities, which is considered as external factors, and the organizational
analysis, the process of analyzing a firm’s strengths and weaknesses as internal factors. SWOT analysis was carried out for
Air Blue and the results are summarized as follows:
Strengths:
1.Second largest air-carrier of Pakistan, enjoying almost 30 percent market share on domestic routes.
2.Airblue is a Low-cost carrier (LCC).The reason behind air blue’s low fares is that it uses Dynamic Pricing
Model. Airblue puts its entire ticket inventory on the Net and direct internet booking accounts for 15% of its sales. It begins
selling tickets at a 40% discount to full service carriers (FSCs), but closer to the date of your travel, you may
end up paying up to 30% premium over the price charged by FSCs.
3.98% punctuality of on-time flight departures.
4.Innovative e-ticketing and wireless check-in technologies.
5. Operational efficiency
6. Package for students and special children
7. Airblue showed a record operating profit of over Rs 150 million for year 2006while providing a high quality product to the
consumers.

Weaknesses:
1.Difficulty in developing brand-awareness as a startup company.
2.Engaged only in passenger service, whereas its competitor PIA is also providing cargo services
(SPEEDEX).
3.Not having its own repair and maintenance facilities.
4.Doing less on the advertising and promotion of air line.
5.Not operating flights for Hajj Pilgrims, which could be a major source of income.
6.Small fleet of air crafts.
7.Two aircrafts are acquired on dry lease and one on wet lease.
8.It connects only seven cities in Pakistan.
9.Very tight schedule of flights, which puts extra burden on pilots, cabin crew and hostesses.
Opportunities:
1.Agreement with Airbus Industries for the purchase of eight airbus A320-200and two airbus A330-200 aircrafts for an
estimated cost of $ 790 million. New aircrafts will be used for additional frequencies and destinations on domestic and regional
routes.
2.Low fares enable market share growth.
3.Introducing new domestic and international routes like Gulf, UK, Jordan, India etc. Stable economy and growing
GDP.
4. Poor performance & red tapism in PIA
5. Excellent credit rating allows Air Blue to purchase its expansion strategy.
Threats:
1.Escalating jet fuel prices.
2.Low-cost Chinese airlines planning to enter into Pakistan’s domestic air market.
3.Cutthroat price war among airlines.
4.Buses business continuously improving speed in service in mid and long distance routes, attracting passengers away
from air service.
5.PIA is also procuring 10 new Boeing planes.
6.Threat of terrorism