PIA hires 100 more employees for its ‘premier flights’

Newly hired staff will serve as cabin crew for A330-300 aircraft

KARACHI: Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has recruited another 100 employees to serve passengers on premier flights that would start on more routes in the near future.

“PIA would soon start operating premier flights to London from other cities of the country,” said an official requesting anonymity.



The national carrier is also considering operating upgraded flights on Pakistan-China routes, said another official.

At present, the national carrier is operating upgraded flights on the Islamabad- and Lahore-London routes since the mid of the current month.

The newly-hired employees will serve as cabin crew at A330-300 aircraft, which PIA acquired from SriLankan Airlines on wet lease for the flights in July. As per the agreement, the national carrier would acquire two more A330-300s from SriLankan Airlines by February 2017.



“Around 100 newly inducted participants will be trained on A330-300 aircraft, keeping in view the planned expansion of premier service,” stated a PIA handout.

The PIA Training Centre would soon start a 12-week Cabin Crew Basic Training programme for them, it added.

In the handout, CEO-PIA Bernd Hildenbrand regarded this as an important step towards bringing about improvement in PIA’s service and giving young people the chance to realise their professional dreams.

Overstaffed PIA

When asked about overstaffing issues in the advent of further recruitment, an official said that “this is a highly politicised matter.”



The official said that all offices of the airlines located in different parts of the country were not overstaffed. “When PIA opts to transfer the surplus staff to other stations where services are needed, they disobey the orders [of transfer] and go on strike.”

At present, PIA employs around 18,000 people, a fact that is blamed for the airlines’ losses.

PIA reported a net loss of Rs20.55 billion for the nine-month ended September 30, 2015.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 27^th, 2016.

Like Business on Facebook, follow @TribuneBiz on Twitter to stay informed and join in the conversation.