KARACHI: Denying the reports of discontinuation of flights to the United States (US), The Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) spokesperson on Sunday said that the airline service will continue its flight operations to the US.
The spokesperson, while talking to a leading English daily, said that PIA is running two flights to New York every week and this will continue until a formal decision is taken. He, however, added that the airline service was also deliberating on devising an effective strategy to reduce the cost of operating US-bound flights.
He also said that New-York bound flights were required to make a short stopover at the Manchester airport due to a requirement by the US authorities to clear the necessary security checks. He also acknowledged that ‘economic viability’ was one of the major reasons the airline was facing issues in continuing the flight operations to the US.
On the reports of discontinuation of flights to the US, the spokesperson said that there is no truth in such reports and a further decision will be taken in a few days.
On a question about whether the flights will continue to New York, he said that it was premature to say anything about it and if there is any such decision made, it will be informed in a day or two. He also denied the reports of possible retrenchment in PIA and said that no layoffs had been made, not even in the past despite heavy losses.
He clarified that the transfers and postings of staff based on the requirements and need of the job were a routine matter and not a part of retrenchment.
Earlier, there were reports that the PIA will stop flights to the US and cut jobs from October 31, after which the airline will no longer book US-bound flights through its reservation system.
It was reported that the airline was expected to cut more than 500 jobs under the latest plan and the officials had taken this decision due to heavy losses the country’s flagship carrier was incurring—the losses were estimated to be over Rs1.25 billion annually.
