ISLAMABAD:
Pakistan International Airlines is suffering a loss of Rs70.7 million per day. The worrying figures are in keeping with recent reports, which suggest the airline has already lost Rs110 billion over the past three years.
Defence Minister Ahmed Mukhtar informed lawmakers in his written reply submitted to the Senate on Friday that “PIA suffered Rs19 billion losses over the last 273 days.”
Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Senator Ismail Buledi and Pakistan Muslim League-Q Senator Begum Najma Hameed questioned why the national flag carrier had faced such turbulence for so long.
“PIA is not on brink of collapse, however it is a fact that the airline is in a sorry state of affairs,” acknowledged the minister, replying to questions posed by lawmakers during the question and answer session in parliament.
Asked why PIA was incurring losses despite growing domestic air traffic, Mukhtar said that high fuel costs were a factor. “We are looking to the government for help, before the national airline edges closer to the verge of collapse like Pakistan Railways,” he added.
Despite the crippling losses, PIA employees – both retired and serving – enjoy free travel in Pakistan as well as abroad, observed Senator Najma Hameed. Former directors and other board members are entitled to 12 tickets in economy and business plus, including other facilities, the written reply stated.
Lawmakers were also informed during the course of proceedings that seven out of 26 airports were closed down due to the suspension of PIA flight operations on account of insufficient traffic load. “Neither PIA nor any other airline is interested in conducting flight operations from the closed airports,” he said. The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) will consider proposals to make flights operational from the closed airports, said the minister.
Earlier, the ministry of defence revealed that over the past three years 2,171 people were recruited by PIA. The number of people hired by the incumbent government is the highest in the history of the national flag carrier, with 1,179 employed in 2010 alone.
“A paradigm shift is needed in PIA,” wrote Mukhtar in reply to this point. However, he maintained that there would be no reduction of manpower in operational staff such as pilots, aircraft engineers and specialised professionals.
The defence minister also disclosed that over Rs2.16 billion has been allocated for the Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (Suparco) in the current fiscal year (2011-12) budget.
The highest amount, worth Rs1.5 billion, will be spent on the Pakistan Communication Satellite System, he said. A memorandum of understanding has been signed between Suparco and the Institute of Remote Sensing Applications for scientific cooperation on the operational use of remote sensing technology in the fields of agriculture, water resources and disaster risk assessment.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 21st, 2012.
Correction: An earlier version of this report incorrectly stated PIA's daily losses at Rs70,000 per day. Additionally, the report also incorrectly stated that PIA had only lost Rs19 million in 273 days. The error is regretted.
COMMENTS (11)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
Very irresponsible reporting, the true loss is 70 million per day
i think there has been a typo and you have missed a couple of zeros!
Every airline in the world is suffering from high fuel costs but they manage to stay afloat. PIA is terribly managed by political appointees mostly ex-army who are nincompoops. Hire a professional staff, create an advisory board with real people with an interest to salvage the operations, fire the curent management and most of the incompetent employees and see the results!!!
Someone please explain why the Defense Minister or your Air Force has anything to do with PIA. If you want to make PIA profitable get the military out of the middle of the thing - bring in some professionals from outside of Pakistan and give it a bonafide chance of sinking or swimming on it's own.
What rs 70k only ? Thats less than one transatlantic ticket, why is this a news? I guess because PIA is supposed to be profitable.
Only PKR 70,000 per day....lolz...sounds easy to fix...i am glad its not USD 70,000 per day....
By international standards 70 000 rps / day is nothing but there is anissue with a corporate culture of greed. They need to trim the staff and stop the unecessary perks to make the airline more productive. When I travel from the US or Canada, the flight seems always full. Moreover like my most Pakistanis, my first choice of airline is PIA over anything else because the food and environment is better than anything else out there.
Actually, those figures are not that bad. However, I don't think they give the full story. PIA has run up billions of rupees in losses annually since long. And I have to argue against using high fuel prices as the main cause.
If budget airlines in Europe can be run profitably by selling cheap tickets, there is no reason PIA cannot do the same. Using a 747 or 777-300LR (LR stands for Long Range) on Islamabad-Karachi flight is one of the most ridiculous things an airline can do. 747/777 is cost-effective on long haul flights. For short flights, different versions of smaller jets are available and used by PIA. That is what the low cost operators use for flying cheaply all over Europe. Sure, food is not included in ticket but hey, who flies for the airline food anyway ? And surely, people can survive under 2 hours without food, that being the flight time between Islamabad and Karachi. Flying more cycles using long-haul jets increases their maintenance costs but then I am sure PIA management knows all that. Yet, they don't want to do anything about it or don't seem to care, as their jobs are secure and pensionable and there is a sugar daddy to turn to i.e. Pakistan government, when you need cash.
PIA should stop "looking towards the government" for bailout funds. It is a commercial organisation and should be run as such. However, keeping it under government control has led to it being used as an employment exchange to dole out favors to party members and that has led to its downfall.
@MA, what is your point about the "dictator" ?
The correct figure is Rs. 7 crores per day, that is 700,000,00.00, not seventy thousand. The amount ET has mentioned is a peanut, PIA looses more money per flight than stated in news.
with the number of empty seats in the airline.. 70000 is a small figure .. keep the fare constant at 7000 per passenger for khi to isl and see the results