The monthly operational losses of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) have been slashed by 50 percent to Rs1.5 billion from over Rs3 billion, said CEO PIA.

Speaking during his visit to the Karachi Chamber of Commerce & Industry (KCCI) Tuesday, Air Marshal Arshad Mahmood Malik said that the reduction in operational losses became possible only due to day-night efforts of PIA team and a lot more still needs to be done to deal with the airline's liabilities as whatever is being earned by PIA was mostly spent on debt servicing.

Chairman Businessmen Group & Former President KCCI Siraj Kassam Teli, General Secretary BMG AQ Khalil, President KCCI Agha Shahab Ahmed Khan, Senior Vice President Arshad Islam, Vice President Shahid Ismail, Former Presidents Haroon Agar, Shamim Ahmed Firpo and Junaid Makda along with KCCI Managing Committee members were also present at the meeting.

The CEO PIA said out of the total fleet of 31 aircraft, only 23 aircraft were operational in past but now 29 aircraft were in working condition due to dedicated efforts of PIA's staff particularly its engineering team and only two aircraft were grounded.

To expand the existing fleet, PIA has leased an aircraft (A-320) from its own resources, which will be landing on November 14 while another aircraft will also be inducted in December this year. Moreover, three to five wide-body aircraft will be added by next year which would certainly facilitate business community intending to take direct flights to Canada and London.

He said that PIA had a potential to grow but unfortunately due to poor policies, the issues being faced by the airline were largely ignored during last 10 to 12 years, which resulted in overstaffing and excessive liabilities.

All the policies and decisions were dictated in the past but not now and all decisions are purely being taken by the management keeping in view the business and commercial viability.

Prime Minister Imran Khan has assured to prioritize the recommendations given by PIA and this has never happened before, he said and added that the Prime Minister during a cabinet meeting warned that any individual found interfering in PIA's affairs would face strict action.

Commenting on PIA's cargo operation, he said that in past, PIA used to lift only 20 percent of the available capacity which had now improved to 80 percent, due to the cooperation of business community and added that the airline needed more support assured to drop cargo rates if people choose to avail PIA's cargo facility.

Highlighting PIA's Hajj Operations 2019, he said that it was for the very first time that the entire Hajj Operation was solely carried out by PIA in which a total of 83,000 pilgrims were facilitated without leasing any aircraft and added that Sukkur and Quetta stations were also operational for Hajj Pilgrims this year.

He also directed the concerned PIA officials to make arrangements for signing a Memorandum of Understanding with KCCI by next Monday for setting up a PIA office at KCCI premises which would provide extra services and facilities to the business community.

Chairman BMG & Former President KCCI Siraj Kassam Teli underscored that PIA must enhance the number of aircraft and destinations, particularly its direct flights to Canada, London, New York and Beijing etc with all the required facilities to facilitate the frequent travelers and members of the business & industrial community which would surely improve the revenue of the national flag carrier.

"You cannot expel political appointments but this useless and incompetent workforce must be sidelined having no involvement in PIA's affairs which will surely help in improving PIA's performance and the CEO will have to take immediate decisions in this regard otherwise these employees would continue to create hindrances", Teli said.

He said that PIA needed to improve its flights' schedule in coordination with travel agents and strategy should be defined in such a manner that would create win-win situation for both PIA and the travel agents.

He assured to provide maximum support to the national flag carrier, saying that KCCI's Research & Development department could also help PIA in any research work.

Earlier, in his address of welcome, KCCI President Agha Shahab Ahmed Khan said that PIA must expand its direct flights particularly to those destinations where majority of overseas Pakistanis were residing besides revisiting all its air-routes.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2019