EDITORIAL: The PK 860 was to reach Karachi carrying full load, including 150 Umra pilgrims, but for reasons not yet clear it didn’t land at Karachi. It flew onto Lahore and landed there, with its passengers wondering how come someone had changed their destination.

“Unavoidable operational reasons” have been cited by the airline’s spokesperson as the cause for change of destination of its passengers. ‘What to do now’, the passengers wondered only to be placated by the PIA staff, who told them: ‘Don’t worry’. You will reach Karachi by Sunday evening’.

And as for the new flight PK 762 from Jeddah its 180 booked passengers were supposedly adjusted by putting them in expensive hotels.

Of course, operational reasons do demand changes in flying schedules. But why this PK 860 had to change its destination, to this the popular opinion is that there must be a ‘VVIP’ on the flight who wanted to reach Lahore as quickly as possible, and that had forced the PK 860 to be in Lahore instead of its scheduled destination of Karachi. Hopefully, by now the ‘VVIP’ must be at home and so should be the passengers who were stuck in Jeddah for 24 hours.

But all this happened at a cost that is heavy, particular for the PIA, which is now treated as a pariah in the aviation world. It is a losing concern and is in the air yet only because it is Pakistan’s national air carrier.

Imagine the cost the PIA would pay for this re-routing of PK 860 to take the ‘VVIP’ to his home town by ignoring the ordeal of so many other passengers during this holy month of Ramazan. Informed sources are of the opinion that the PIA has a history of taking such business-unfriendly decisions to please ‘VVIPs’.

This change of destination to let a ‘VVIP’ be at home and not considering how much this would cost in terms of hotel accommodation for passengers, who could not be on their booked flights by the PIA and the time these passengers lost, is no more tolerable now.

The country’s economy is teetering on the brink of disaster and the world is no more sympathetic to our plight for some obvious reasons. PIA is one of the worst sufferers of this nonchalance.

Also, when only recently the government announced a stiff free-travel plan for the ‘VVIPs’ the change of PK 860 destination tends to lend a kind of hollowness to such pronouncements.

Let the people know the whole truth about this episode; and not the vague ‘unavoidable operational reasons’ excuse. Last but not least, once upon a time the PIA truly lived up to its ‘Great people to fly with’ reputation.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023