Govt initiates plans to restructure PIA, Senate told

  • Minister says the airline plans to terminate around 200 ghost employees, besides replacing 20-year-old software with a new one

ISLAMABAD: Aviation Division Minister Muhammad Mian Soomro on Tuesday informed the Senate that process regarding the restructuring of Pakistan International Airline (PIA) has been initiated with an aim to improve the standard of the national flag carrier.

Replying to a question in the Senate, the minister said that effective security measures have been adopted to stop suspicious activities and to control smuggling at airports.

In a written reply, he said that PIA had been operating flights to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore and Peshawar during the ‘Summer Schedule 2017’. However, he added, the airline had abandoned its operations from Islamabad, Lahore and Peshawar during ‘Winter Schedule 2017-18’ and is operating from Karachi only.

He said that the airline keeps reviewing its operating routes in accordance with market conditions and take decisions on the closure of existing routes and the opening of new routes after taking into account its viability.

“Making Karachi a hub for Kuala Lumpur operations and bringing passengers from other cities may have been viable for PIA than operating separate flights for Peshawar and other cities of Pakistan,” he added.

The minister said that the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) would always welcome if PIA resumes Kuala Lumpur-Peshawar city pair operation at the recommended slots of the Bacha Khan International Airport, Peshawar.

He clarified that no bailout package has been given by the government, rather additional guarantees of Rs17.022 billion have been approved by it and PIA would borrow from banks against additional guarantees.

He said that PIA is in a process of finalising its ‘Strategic Business Plan 2019-22’ which would be submitted to the federal government in March or April this year.

“The plan includes measures to improve the airline’s performance with several profitable routes like Silakot-Sharjah, Lahore-Muscat, Islamabad-Doha and Lahore-Bangkok-Kuala Lumpur, as these routes are going very strong and are economically viable,” he stated.

Soomro said more routes have been planned by the airline, which would commence from January and February 2019. These new routes included Sialkot-Paris-Barcelona, Peshawar-Sharjah, Peshawar-Al- Ain and Multan-Sharjah, he informed.

He said that there is a plan to increase frequencies and capacity on profitable routes like Jeddah and Madinah, besides plan for closure of loss-making routes like New York, Salalah (Oman), Kuwait, Mumbai and Tokyo.

The airline is also replacing the 20-year-old and highly expensive software system with a new one (HITIT), which is cost effective and efficient.

He said the airline also plans to terminate around 200 extra and ghost employees.

Soomro said that an effective austerity and cost saving drive was initiated which included curtailment of unnecessary visits by officials. He said that instructions have been issued to make use of technological assistance like video calls, conference calls etc, besides retrieving company vehicles and eliminating fuel allocations accordingly.

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