PIA

KARACHI: Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) on Tuesday announced the fare for its Air Safari service that is scheduled to start from June 12.

According to PIA spokesperson, the inaugural flight will fly from Islamabad to Skardu on June 12 and the one-way fare for Air Safari service will be Rs25, 000.

PIA has named this service ‘Sadpara Air Safari,’ after the prominent mountaineer, Ali Sadpara, who lost his life along with two international mountaineers during their quest to conquer K2 in winter.

The national airline said that the Safari flight would operate every Saturday from the New Islamabad Airport and fly over the mighty K2, Nanga Parbat, Gaherbrum peaks, Deosai plains and famous Saif ul  Maluk lake.

K2 and Nanga Parbat are Pakistan’s highest mountains, and are popular among mountaineers. K2 is the world’s second-highest mountain at 8,611 meters above sea level.

GILGIT: Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has started direct flights from Karachi to Skardu to promote tourism in Gilgit-Baltistan.

The first PIA Airbus-320 landed at the Skardu Airport on Monday, May 24. The airline will operate two weekly flights from Karachi to Skardu.

Earlier on April 7, the national carrier had launched direct flight operation from Lahore to Skardu twice a week.

In a press release, GB Governor Raja Jalal Hussain Maqpoon said the direct flights from Karachi to Skardu had been launched with a view to promoting tourism in the region and facilitating the local people. He said the federal government was fully cooperating to develop the tourism sector in GB.

He said international flights would also be launched from Gilgit-Baltistan in near future, which would further boost the region’s tourism sector.

“In collaboration with the federal and provincial governments, practical steps are also being taken to make the Skardu Airport an all-weather and international airport,” he said.

Separately, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has issued TPRI (Tourism Promotion and Regional Integration) license to a newly-launched private airline named North Air in order to boost tourism in the region, according to a press release.

The private airline will operate flights between Islamabad and Gilgit, Islamabad-Skardu, Islamabad-Chitral, and Islamabad-Gwadar.

KARACHI: Last week Air Marshal Retd. Arshad Malik, Chief Executive Officer Pakistan International Airlines (PIA)   called on Her Excellency Androulla Kaminara ambassador of the European Union in Pakistan, and discussed the initiatives undertaken to allay The EU Concerns Regarding PIA flight safety and other issues. The ambassador assured her support in taking up the matter with the concerned authority (EASA) for paving way for PIA flights resumption to EU destinations.  

KARACHI: The Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has notified promotions of more than 100 flight attendants from Group 6 to 7, as reported on Wednesday, May 19.

A notification was issued by the PIA management regarding the promotion of over 100 flight attendants which came into effect from May 7, 2021.

According to the spokesperson, the flight attendants have been awarded promotions based on their performance. The promoted flight attendants will receive 10 per cent of basic pay as a promotional increase.

QUETTA: The national flag carrier, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) on Tuesday, May 18, resumed its domestic flights to Zhob, making Zhob airport functional after a gap of three years.

The first ATR flight PK-528 carrying 36 passengers, which operated from Karachi International Airport, landed at Zhob airport on Tuesday, May 18.

Balochistan Minister for Livestock Mitha Khan Kakar, PIA General Manager Balochistan Bilal Afzal, Station Manager Zhob airport Abdul Shakoor, Assistant Commissioner Zhob Rohana Kakar, and other officials received the passengers.

The PIA officials said that initially, two flights would operate on the Karachi-Zhob and Zhob-Karachi routes on a weekly basis, every Tuesday and Friday. They said PIA had resumed the flight operations to facilitate the people of Zhob, who were running their businesses or working in the Gulf States. One-way fare of Karachi-Zhob has been fixed at Rs6, 500.

Earlier, the PIA ran its flights between Quetta-Zhob-Dera Ismail Khan and Peshawar. However, later the flights were suspended for unknown reasons. The flight that left for Karachi from Zhob airport carried 41 passengers.

On the occasion, Mr. Kakar said the PIA decision would benefit people of Zhob who were doing their businesses or working in the Gulf States.

He expressed the hope that PIA and other airlines would also start their flights for Quetta-Zhob-Peshawar sector.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has resumed direct flights to Bahrain on Friday, May 07.

The national flag carrier’s first flight (PK-189) with 156 passengers on board took off from the Allama Iqbal International Airport Lahore for Bahrain.

PIA will operate direct flights to Bahrain twice a week from Lahore and Islamabad. The direct flights will facilitate passengers by reducing their travel time.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the airline Arshad Malik said restoration of flight operations on profit-making routes is a key part of the Pakistan International Airlines revival plan, vowing to start direct flights to more international destinations in the foreseeable future.

Earlier, Pakistan International Airlines in a statement said: “We are pleased to announce that Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) is going to start services in Bahrain from 07 May 2021. PIA shall operate two weekly flights from Bahrain to Lahore and Islamabad, respectively.”

“The new Pakistan International Airlines services is a sign of already close and cordial relations between Pakistan and Bahrain, and will further boost trade, tourism and people-to-people links.”

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan International Airlines Corp. will lay off half of its 14,000 employees, replace some of its fleets, and permanently close loss-making routes in a bid to become a profitable entity.

Pakistan’s cabinet approved the carrier’s restructuring, said Ishrat Hussain, an adviser to Prime Minister Imran Khan. It also requested to explore outsourcing management contract or sale of 26% stake in the airline after improving its balance sheet, he said.

The plan follows revival attempts in the past that were blocked by protesting employees or political opposition. This time, there are “no grandiose plans to become like Emirates or Etihad or Qatar,” Hussain said in a recent interview. It will be “a very lean and efficient organization,” he said. The aim is to return PIA to profit by 2023.

That would be some turnaround for an airline whose finances and reputation have taken a beating in recent times. Even without Covid related border restrictions, PIA was banned from key markets including the U.S., U.K, and Europe after Pakistan’s aviation minister said last year that almost a third of the nation’s pilots had fake or dubious licenses. The claim was enough to further dent the confidence.

The pandemic put PIA in an even more difficult position. More routes were closed off and it missed out on peak travel periods like Umrah and the annual Hajj pilgrimage. Even airlines in good financial health have been left reeling because of the coronavirus, which has caused dozens to collapse and thousands of job losses globally.

PIA had 30 aircraft as of Sept. 30, including 12 Boeing Co. 777s and 11 Airbus SE A320s. Hussain didn’t specify what changes would be made to the fleet, which also includes ATR aircraft, but he said the size would be “kept under 30” and include more fuel-efficient planes. PIA will no longer serve destinations such as Tokyo and Manila, Hussain said.

About 2,000 employees have taken voluntary redundancy already, according to the airline. Meanwhile, non-core operations such as catering and engineering will be outsourced, said Hussain, a former central bank governor.

In a bid to protect the national flag carrier from further financial turmoil, the federal cabinet decided to go ahead with the plan to divide PIA into two separate companies.

The plan has been tried before and failed. The Nawaz Sharif government, which had devised the plan in 2015, was forced to back off because of strong protests from the employees and opposition political parties.

Through such extreme restructuring, authorities are confident that the crisis will be averted, provided that there is no attempt to politicize this issue as was done in 2015 when protests broke out against the privatization of the company.

Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry told the media that the cabinet had in principle approved the plan to divide the national carrier into two companies, but sent the summary to ECC again for a few changes.

Even if the PTI government does not face similar resistance from the airline’s employees and opposition from its political rivals what guarantee is there that the company’s fortunes will revive? With the government paying billions from taxpayers’ money to scrap the bulk of the national airline’s liabilities of Rs460bn, it is crucial that the details of the revival plan are shared with the public for debate and wider consensus. There are still people who believe that PIA can be turned around without having to split it.

PIA has declined mainly because of its flawed aviation policies that gave foreign airlines unfettered access to Pakistan’s market without the country securing reciprocal concessions; poor management; years of little investment; bureaucratic interference; and last but not the least, uncooperative labor unions linked with political parties. But successive governments have chosen the easier course of holding overstaffing in the airline responsible for its downfall instead of focusing on all issues and resolving them. The main theme of the suggested plan does not seem any different. It seeks to divide PIA into a ‘good’ company with fewer financial liabilities and employees on its roll, and its ‘bad’ clone loaded with unwanted staff to be laid off in the future and most liabilities to be paid off later with taxpayers’ money. The ultimate goal remains the same: get rid of excess staff and unburden the company of its existing liabilities. How the ‘good’ PIA will be a better-managed entity than its parent company is anyone’s guess. The proposed options for overhauling the national flag carrier to transform it into a financially viable entity include human resource restructuring through the voluntary separation scheme, engaging aviation industry experts, modernizing the fleet, rationalizing routes, product development, and enhancing revenues. Which part of this plan is difficult to execute within the existing framework? Rather than experimenting anew, the better idea would be to bring in professional management with a sound business plan and allow it full freedom to take the necessary decisions to turn the airline around. Before that, the government needs to engage its employees and other stakeholders to secure their buy-in for the future roadmap.