Naseer N. S. Jaffer, Chairman Pakistan International Airline (PIA), has said that if privatisation of the national flag carrier is decided, it should be done without any political influence. Speaking at a press briefing along with Shahnawaz Rehman, Managing Director, Captain Salman Azhar, Director Flight Operation and Khurram Mushtaq, Director Marketing, at PIA headquarters, he said that PIA management was presently restructuring balance sheet with the assistance of auditors and then it would be presented to the government for a suitable decision.
He further said: "I have neither supported nor opposed PIA privatisation but if it is decided then privatisation should be done through a strategic investor with no political influence." "Airline's debt is presently hovering around Rs 295 billion and its negative equity surges to Rs 170 billion," he added.
He also dispelled the impression of engaging pilots on a contractual basis, saying that PIA was not recruiting pilots on contractual basis but instructors for A-320 aircraft was in the cards. He said that airline had so far inducted nine A-320 aircraft and four more planes were going to be added in the fleet soon. Therefore, airline has to train its 100 pilots for this new generation of aircraft. For the purpose, instructors are being hired on a contractual basis for line-training.
Chairman PIA further said that airline, which had inducted 13 aircraft to expand its fleet to 35 aircraft during last 12 months, was carrying out its operations with 30 aircraft because five aircraft were on service. He said that airline had five ATR-72 aircraft, six ATR-42, nine A-320 on lease, nine B-777 and six A-310 aircraft in its fleet and added that agreement regarding four more A-310 aircraft had been signed and two of them would be added by September and rest of them by October.
He said that B-747 had completely utilised that left no option but to engage two aircraft on lease for Hajj operation and added that airline after tender rejection for two aircraft on dry lease had acquired planes on wet lease for smooth Hajj operation. Moreover, he said that airline, which had reduced the aircrafts' utilisation period to 11 years from 17 years, was now striving to minimise it to nine years. Besides admitting the significant decline in PIA traffic in some sector during past five years, he said that they were working on new sectors for the airline. The chairman further said that the airline had now approached a software developer to improve its E-Ticketing system, which would be completely operational within three months.