The PIA upgrade

The PIA fleet is aging, massively overmanned by international standards and indifferently managed. Its national and international image has dropped far below that of its heyday and it loses money hand over fist, billions upon billions of rupees every year. Reports that it is to lease up to eight new aircraft in an effort to turn things around are being met with mixed reviews. The news surfaced when the airline placed advertisements in newspapers last Sunday looking for both long-and short-term leases for wide-bodied aircraft. One wonders at the necessity for this expense when the airline presumably has its own insider industry contacts that are more efficient and effective when it comes to procuring more assets. To be noted that PIA was seeking modern aircraft made since 2012 and with a capacity of more than 250 passengers. None of these aircraft appear to be available in-country.

The Nawaz Sharif government had prioritised the privatisation of PIA when it came to power in 2013, but employee power trumped government intent and a series of strikes forced it to seek other alternatives. Thus PIA soldiers on bleeding cash and badly in need of a re-boot. Customers complain about poor inflight entertainment on long-haul and outdated shabby aircraft. There are now plans to convert PIA to being a limited company with a 49 per cent stake in the local stock exchanges with the government retaining control of the business for two years. Perhaps, but it does nothing to solve the chronic problem of overmanning at every level of the operation and inducting eight new aircraft, with or without their crews, is going to do nothing to address that. The privatisation programme was linked to an IMF loan of $6.7 billion, but most of these privatisations will likely be deferred until after the next election in 2018. The eternal deferment of hard decisions weakens the country at every level. The grovelling to PIA improves nothing for anybody and leasing your way out of trouble is not a solution. Do the hard stuff.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 19^th, 2016.

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