Pakistan Airline Pilots' Association (Palpa) has lauded the efforts of the management of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) for launching Premier Service. President Palpa, Captain Khalid Hamza, said "we highly appreciate this initiative as it will not only help in improving national carrier's image but also will help recovering the increasingly declining profits."
He added that it was a big step towards achieving the lost glory. "This may lead our airline to compete with the other first class service provider airlines," said Khalid. "PIA and its management deserve commendation on launching Premier Service, which will prove as turnaround for the national airline," said Captain Khalid Khan, Vice President Palpa. However there still is a long way to go and many more milestones to cross which include some technical as well as facility upgrade.
It should be noted that PIA launched new luxury air service on the country's Independence Day. There will be six weekly premier service flights to London, three each from Islamabad and Lahore. Later, with addition of more aircraft, the service would be expanded to other destinations.
General Secretary Palpa Captain Rizwan Ahmed while commending the move said it would be in the best interest of airline and the country that a comprehensive plan was chalked out and areas requiring immediate attention were also looked into such as Ramp Service equipment etc.
Also, he added, there were other issues requiring the management's attention. "They should upgrade ramp equipment, while passenger facilitation should be the core objective of the management," said Rizwan. Moreover, he added, crew fatigue management should be established to efficiently manage flying hour issues of pilots, which was a great safety concern and deserved proper continuous attention.
Rizwan said the management also needed to work for optimum utilisation of the resources (especially the flight crew). "The above mentioned issues are important and they should be resolved in order to put the airline on success path," said General Secretary Palpa.