Editorial

Getting back in the air

Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) is gradually going to resume what passes for normal operations

Editorial February 10, 2016

Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) is gradually going to resume what passes for normal operations. PHOTO: REUTERS

With any luck, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) is gradually going to resume what passes for normal operations, with the strike called by its employee unions finally coming to an end. A range of pressures from outraged passengers who found their tickets worthless to a government that appeared obdurate and invoking the Essential Services (Maintenance) Act 1952, conflated to bring about a partial resumption of work. The government and the unions are meeting in an attempt to repair the damage — lives were lost in a still unexplained shooting incident involving striking workers — and move to a position where restructuring of PIA, in whatever format, can go ahead.

There have been innumerable attempts to right the wrongs of an airline that is desperately overstaffed, inefficiently managed and even today used as a tool of political preferment. With the payroll now at over 700 personnel per aircraft and the government haemorrhaging billions every month to prop up the national carrier, it is obvious that cuts have to be made somewhere, whether PIA is privatised or not. The government wants to sell off a percentage of the stake. The unions see that as the thin end of the wedge, and as has been witnessed, are vehemently opposed to this. The Engineering Division of the airline that keeps the aircraft airworthy and to international standards of safety holds the trump card. If the engineers say there is ‘no fly’, then there is no fly and who can gainsay them? By mid-afternoon on February 10, the leader of the PIA staff union was quoted as saying that he was satisfied with the way the initial talks with the Punjab chief minister had gone, but the matter is far from resolved.

A spark of light has been provided by PIA announcing a halving of fares, which had skyrocketed as soon as the strike took hold, and is doubtless designed to bring back those passengers forced to use other carriers. The airline lost its chairman at the height of the strike and it is not going to be easy to attract a person of the necessary competencies to turn things round, and as elsewhere in a country wracked by industrial disputes, competencies are no less deficient on the government side.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 11^th, 2016.

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COMMENTS (2)

Sodomite | 8 years ago | Reply @S.R.H. Hashmi: Thank you for making sane recommendations. I have been arguing the same for the last 10 years but it fell on deaf ears. PIA should have been an over 100 aircraft company if it had been professionally managed, but alas none of our companies survive and flourish for long, except Murree Brewery being the only exception since establishment by the British in 1860.

S.R.H. Hashmi | 8 years ago | Reply The primary cause of PIA’s downfall is normally considered to be its exceptionally high staff-to-aircraft ratio. Just as a matter of interest, I put this before my wife – whose education and experience is more in the academic, rather than business and finance field – and asked her for a solution. She thought for a moment, smiled and said “Get more aircraft.” Now, her solution was not as dumb as some of us might think. The high staff-to-aircraft ratio of PIA has basically been caused by (1) Reckless over-staffing to oblige the favourites and (2) The number of aircraft having fallen far below the number required to enable the airline to operate at the level it was structured to operate at in order to realize its full potential. And that means that the solution to high staff-to-aircraft ratio lies in (a) Shedding staff by not replacing the retiring employees who were surplus to requirement (b) Selling PIA’s prestigious assets like Roosevelt Hotel, which are not directly related with PIA’s operations and creating a fund out of which to offer golden hand-shades to surplus staff and (c) Acquiring additional aircraft most appropriate to PIA’s operations instead of acquiring long-haul aircraft and running them on medium-distance routes. And of course the primary solution would be to appoint staff in key positions strictly on merit and letting them run the airline without undue interference, fear or favour. Unfortunately, these measures are in direct clash with the interest of the top government officials who habitually and intentionally place corrupt, weak individuals in top positions in state-owned entities in order to facilitate their corruption. This is the primary cause of the downfall of superb institutions like PIA which were once pride of the nation, as well as other state-owned entities. So, our politicians rob us twice; first by spoiling the efficiently-running institutions through their corruption and again, by selling them off at much below their true worth to associates or friends and making another big killing in the process. Obviously, the real solution lies not so much in privatization of the state-owned entities but in reforming the government and preventing the downright thieves and scoundrels masquerading as politicians to take turns to rob us left, right and centre, in clear view of the public, as well as the most powerful sector in Pakistan, which has the ability to stop the rot but somehow seems to be excessively obsessed with Sindh. Karachi

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