The Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has earned an after-tax profit of Rs 1.4 billion during January-June 2004 against the budgeted target of Rs 1.5 billion, after having absorbed the excessive fuel bill during this period to the tune of Rs 1.2 billion over planned levels.
This was reported to the PIA Board of Directors, which met here on Thursday to review the performance of the airline for the January-June 2004 period, according to a PIA press release issued here on Thursday.
The Board was informed that even under these adverse conditions, the airline has maintained all basic parameters, and is poised to continue its push for achieving higher growth levels, while it is confident about its future growth and progress.
Resorting to a strategy of chasing a challenging growth target, fares have also been revised upwards, as international and domestic distribution channels are being expanded for a wider and upgraded network for improved market share. The PIA fleet plan is being revised, which will be finalised by September 2004 for the induction of fuel-efficient aircraft.
During the quarter of April-June 2004, PIA reported an operational loss of Rs 215 million against a budgeted profit of Rs 73 million having to absorb a phenomenal increase in fuel cost exceeding budget by over Rs 740 million.
The Board was also informed that apart from fare increase, the seat factor increase, the induction of fuel-efficient aircraft, the PIA management would be taking cost-cutting measures in the face of challenges confronting the airline during the remaining period of the fiscal year.
It was also explained the modernisation of PIA fleet by adding nine wide-body aircraft, including three state-of-the-art Boeing 777-200 Ers and six half life A310-300s. These aircraft along with radical marketing strategies adopted have enabled the improved product offerings, expanded markets and increased market share.
During the period under review, the airline successfully added 11 stations to its network, including Bombay, Delhi, Dhaka, Kathmandu, Colombo, Tashkent, Almaty, Fujairah, Ras Alkhaimah, Milan and Houston.
During the second quarter of 2004, the airline mounted 22 percent higher capacity than in April-June 2003, and successfully achieved a passenger traffic growth of 17 percent over the same period the previous year, surpassing budget expectations. For the half year, the airline''s passenger traffic experienced an increase by 13.6 percent against a capacity increase of 14.7 percent over January-June 2003.
While expanding its passenger network, the airline has also aggressively re-entered the cargo market, and is now once again a major cargo carrier in the Pakistan market with four weekly freighter flights to Europe and UK in addition to its B747-Combi flights.
During April-June 2004, the cargo traffic increased by 9.1 percent over the same period last year, bringing the growth of the first half of the year to 4.7 percent over January-June 2003 levels.