Ill planning on the part of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) in picking up pilgrims during the current highly profitable Umrah season has proved a boon for Saudia and Shaheen Airlines. According to informed sources planning, no additional flights in current high profitable Umrah season when other carriers such as Shaheen Air and Saudi Arabian Airline are taking advantage of PIA's inability to plan Umrah flights in advance is a bad reflection on national carrier's marketing department.
"Both these carriers with advance planning have already taken maximum share of Umrah business from the market, leaving PIA to only cater for the left over demand. Therefore, director marketing should be held accountable for this sheer negligence that not only created financial loss but also resulted in damaging the credibility of national airline," reasoned the sources.
"It is the most unfortunate department as it is being run on ad-hoc basis despite the fact that marketing department is considered to be the most important department of any airline in the world as it earns revenue and devises strategies to counter competition."
The last three directors of marketing department were mostly engineers (not marketing professionals), and the current director is also a flight engineer. "On top of that he is appointed as an officiating director and not on full time basis," sources said.
This is the main reason why PIA has been unable to introduce any long-term strategy to attract passengers, resulting in financial losses to the airline. "Decision making at the top level of the department has become so slow that it is taking toll on the performance and revenues of the airline," they said.
There are few questions, the sources add, that need to be answered by the current management like why the marketing department does not have a full-time director, and why all directors of this department have been appointed just two to three months prior to their retirements.
While quoting a ruling of the 339th Board of Directors (BoD) meeting of PIA, the sources said it was directed that all operations personnel and engineers working in other departments should revert to their parent departments, else they will be given salaries as per their new assignments. In utter disregard to the decision of BoD the current director marketing is not only working in the said capacity but also getting remuneration of operations engineers.
Apart from that, sources said top management should ask director marketing what strategies were being adopted by the department to counter the current and upcoming lean season. "Also, he should be asked why Chicago flight was discontinued and why it is being re-initiated, not on the basis of market demand factors in this regard," they said.
Marketing department should also be made to answer why any incentive is not offered on Europe, USA and Canada, Gulf, Middle-East, Far East and Regional sectors for current and upcoming lean seasons. "Is this a deliberate attempt to hit PIA revenues and bring more financial losses to the national carrier?" they questioned.
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