Turkish delights

There are examples around the world that through prudent privatisation and will to succeed, we can turn around PIA

As we struggle to find and answer to how to deal with our national airline, we have before us a number of options on how to move ahead. There are many who believe that outright privatisation is the answer. But do we want to give up our national airline to a foreign entity. There is a pride when we see our national colours, especially in a foreign land. Do we want to give that up?

Others question as to who would buy the airline and how the assets would be divided. There are fears that some questionable business group will get a cheap deal. The government, in its wisdom, has come up with the idea of Pakistan Airways, which by any measure is a poorly conceived option.

In all this, what we see is that nothing is being done and our money – taxpayer money – is being poured into an airline that continues to make losses. One can rightly question the will of the government in continuing to bankroll this white elephant.

All is not lost, however. We do not have to sell off PIA to a foreign airline. There are examples around the world that through prudent privatisation and a sincere will to succeed, we can turn around PIA and bring back the glory days of time gone by.

An example before us is of Turkish Airlines. A recent visit to Turkey to see how the airline has fared after privatisation, helped one understand better what may be the best way for Pakistan to move ahead.

Within ten years of its privatisation, Turkish Airlines today flies to more international destinations in the world than any other airline, has the fourth largest network of destinations in the world and has emerged as the seventh largest carrier in the world in terms of international passengers.

A decade or so back, Turkish Airlines was what PIA is today. Thirty odd aircraft. Poor service both on the ground and in the air. The airline was tottering on bankruptcy and struggling to find its place. In those days, THY was comparable to Aeroflot – cheap fares and high risks. But then things change after the management came into private hands following selling of its shares on the stock market.

Harun Basturk, vice president of sales for Asia and Far East, informed us in his presentation that operating profit for the airline has gone up from $100 million in 2004 to $682 million in 2015. The success story does not stop there. The airline has ambitious plans for the future. Basturk says that the region under his supervision — Asia and the Far East — is where much of the growth will take place in the coming decade.

Let us learn from them. Turkish Airlines did not have a strategic investor when the government divested its majority holdings, instead its shares were floated on the stock market. This was done gradually in fits and starts. There were delays. In fact, PIA started its own selling of shares on the stock market much earlier than Turkish Airlines.

As we were taken around the state-of-the-art training and technical facilities of Turkish Airlines, the one thing that struck was the fact that all these facilities had been initiated by PIA two decades earlier. We have seen it all and lost it. There was a time when PIA’s flight training centre and simulators were used by foreign airlines too.

Turkish Airlines has its own strategy in terms of growth. It is not competing with airlines like Emirates that have wide-bodied aircraft carrying large numbers of people. It focuses on serving smaller destinations and making Istanbul the centre for transfers — 53% passengers of the airline doing this.

More important — much of the expertise is local. Pakistan too has a sea of talent that can be utilised if given the right opportunity. Over the years, Turkish Airlines has created jobs for thousands of people locally as it caters to its growing business locally and internationally.

The turnaround may have not have happened overnight but in ten years, the airline has seen substantial growth and impressive profits with the help of a forward looking management, which has planned and executed a number of initiatives with local expertise and a ‘can-do’ attitude. We can do it, too.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 4^th,  2016.

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