During the discussion, Minister inquired about the fares being charged by PIA on its special flights. However, PIA management explained that most of the flights were ferry flights or were flown with limited number of passengers due to ceiling put forth by the government hence slightly higher fares were being charged from the passengers in order to make such flights economically viable.
Later, CEO PIA Air Marshal Arshad Malik assured the minister that he would look into the assertion of overcharging based on high operating costs associated with these flights.
CEO PIA ordered the commercial department to review the possibility of revision of fares on realistic and tenable terms to benefit the expatriate Pakistani community and directed that fares being charged from the passengers should only be geared towards meeting the cost of operations.
Furthermore, he also instructed that those responsible especially travel agents/partners who overcharged passengers and brought bad name to PIA, must be reprimanded with severest penalties set forth by regulations.