Once upon a time, there was an airline called Pan Am, pride of the dominant power basking in its post war supremacy. We never missed its logo as we drove through the archway of its iconic headquarters in New York. It 'disappeared' long ago, unsung and forgotten.
New-found independence in the post-colonial era was ushered in with the national flag, national anthem, and often a national airline whose aircraft blazoned with the country's colours.
As much greater numbers took to skies market forces took over. Impregnable fortresses like SAS, KLM, Lufthansa, Swiss Air, began to crumble. They merged, became junior partners in alliances, or transformed themselves into budget airlines. They simply lost their national identity.
Our national airline was for quite some time a symbol of national pride. 'Great people to fly with' resonated with us. The cabin crew, clad in Pierre Cardin-designed uniform and welcoming you with a ravishing smile, promised an experience to savour. Such was the power of green uniform that stewardess Naseem Feroze could claim "clapping for me was much more vigorous than for the President" (in Beirut, where Ayub had a stopover)
Did the men (Asghar Khan, Nur Khan) make the airlines or did the airlines make the man taller? Both men came to the job with stellar reputations and no one dared trespass on their turf. But the circumstances were right too. Dubai was a mere fishing village and Bombay/Delhi didn't quite 'fit in'. Ayub lent stability, and being members of CENTO and SEATO helped. Karachi became a natural hub and PIA was a quick learner.
Something then happened. De-transfiguring PIA became a full-time job. PIA, the Huma-like fabulous bird, became an albatross around our neck. Soon we started speaking of it, much like the story of our nation, in the past tense - the glory that was.
Local and foreign experts were put to the task. They held management weakness, union power, and over-employment responsible. Continuing losses wiped out its equity and liquidity crunch did not permit the much needed rebalancing of fleet. Maintenance, too, came under pressure.
Then came the open skies policy; to many the last nail. When introduced in 1992 it promised to balance the 'costs' to PIA with 'incentives'. Incentives never came, and the close to 8% annual growth in air traffic since has been poached by airlines from the Gulf, with their advantages of 'capacity dumping' and 'tankering' (fuelling at cheap cost at home) - and some not-so-hidden state subsidies.
Government after government has promised to do something about PIA but that something eluded each. Each assembled its own excuses for not being able to privatize, restructure, downsize, or merge it with another airline. Each played on the margins: get a professional CEO, empower the Board, fix the balance sheet. In the main, it has been an abject surrender to the 'politics' of PIA.
PTI government has ruled out privatisation. It might also be ideologically opposed to downsizing. We have no idea what magic wand it has that will turn PIA around. In promising another 17 billion rupees, without asking for anything in return, what kind of message is it sending? Is it going to be triumph of hope over experience, all over again?
There are solutions to managerial inefficiencies and financial crises, and in the new CEO the government has found a leader who has the skills as well as the determination to set things right. But will PIA's corporate culture stonewall him?
The several diagnoses of PIA's ills have missed the real cause of the ailment. More than strategic bankruptcy, mismanagement, a tired fleet, or a bloated workforce, it is the culture of the organization that is eating it away.[Michelle Obama could well be describing PIA when she takes a jibe at lawmakers, "armoured tortoises......thick with self-interest"].
At the risk of sounding alarmist, PIA is pockmarked with petty crime, superintended by a coterie of mafias. Every dirty trick is played with gay abandon.
The baggage handlers are known to rifle through checked baggage. A cut is demanded on all supplies. Staff 'non-revenue' tickets are sold, and boarding card issued even in the absence of the non-revenue person. Incidents of smuggling are growing. The crew has friends in high places, as does the staff wanting foreign postings to settle families abroad.
For a higher price you can count on getting a seat on a fully booked flight - and then find it half empty. You can book a seat two months in advance to be told on departure day that it has been cancelled. Booking mismanagement, in collusion with private airlines, has become an art.
Unwittingly, the recent case of fake degrees might lead to some reduction in work force. A much greater reduction will occur if metoo movement catches on in Pakistan. From all accounts sexual harassment has become rampant, a part of PIA culture.
Yes, corporate culture can be corrected but not without major surgery. Every time you take the knife to the job, it gets blunted by the powerful mafia and a dithering government. The cancer spreads. You bring in another knife and it meets the same fate.
The PTI government, that is fast acquiring a reputation for promising everything to everyone and delivering to none, is keeping the cards close to its chest. Will injecting more money, of which it has little, correct the PIA culture? Can it undo the open skies policy, although those that we depend on for bailouts will not take kindly to such move? Will it stand by the CEO if he wields the hatchet?
We wish the government will do all that, especially making it clear to all and sundry that the writ of CEO shall prevail, no matter what. All it should demand of the CEO, in return, is to clean the Augean stables and rid PIA of all the mafias protecting and promoting corrupt practices. That should be the first order of business. Bottom line results will follow.
If the government can't do all that it should just let PIA go. Let it go 'belly up', that apt American expression that describes what happens to fish when they die.
Mercifully, PTI is not blaming the last government for handing it a rotten organization - unless that's reserved for when PTI's secret weapon to fix PIA doesn't work.
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