Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz chaired a meeting to review PIA''s performance which was attended among others by senior minister for defence Rao Sikandar Iqbal, adviser to prime minister on finance and revenue Dr Salman Shah, minister of state for defence Khalid Ahmad Khan Lund, PIA chairman Tariq Kirmani and senior officials.
The Prime Minister instructed the PIA management to take both short- and long-term measures to deal with challenges posed by unprecedented and precipitous hike of oil prices in the international market.
He said the PIA must adopt best practices prevalent in other international airlines and also benchmark its performance with the comparable competing airlines in order to improve both its services and profitability.
He appreciated various initiatives taken by the PIA management to improve its yield, load factor and customer services. He also appreciated PIA''s decision to outsource some of its services to specialists in the private sector.
The PIA chairman made a presentation outlining future initiatives to be taken to make PIA an airline of choice. Recalling the recent tragic air crash near Multan, the Prime Minister said it resulted in a colossal loss of precious lives and our hearts go out to families, who lost their near and dear ones.
The Prime Minister said, "while the inquiry into the crash is proceeding, other aircraft have been induct to fully cater to travel requirements of people, especially those living in far-flung areas after grounding of Fokker aircraft."