PIA: New management struggles to take control
Union leaders seeking lucrative positions, ‘selling’ flights to employees.
KARACHI:
Nearly a month after taking charge, the new management team of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has not yet been able to assert itself against the influence of the powerful unions and other interest groups at the national airline.
Nadeem Yusufzai, formerly of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), was appointed managing director of PIA on February 11 after the forced resignation of his predecessor Ejaz Haroon following a six day strike by the pilots union that left the airline with over Rs1 billion in losses.
The strike was ostensibly called to protest a potential codeshare agreement between PIA and Turkish Airlines, which would allegedly have resulted in PIA giving up its routes to Europe and North America to Turkish Airlines while redirecting its fleet to expand flights to East Asia and Australia. The ministry of defence, the majority shareholder of the PIA, denied any agreement took place but the pilot’s union continued its agitation until Haroon was forced to resign.
According to sources familiar with the matter, the joint action committee – the umbrella group of employees’ unions that led the strike effort – began pressuring the new PIA head as soon as he took his position. Among items on their wish-list were appointments to lucrative positions for some of the leading members of the committee and their associates.
Among other favours being demanded by union leaders are the expansion of the top level of PIA’s management team, which had been cut down by Haroon in order to reduce redundancy and waste. The union wants five general manager positions, a level that Haroon had cut down completely.
Many of the PIA officers appointed by Haroon are either being sidelined or replaced completely. Union leaders are reportedly pressuring Yusufzai to replace the heads of the airline’s engineering, marketing, human resources and flight services departments. Yusufzai has been handed a list of preferred candidates by the unions to replace the officers currently occupying these positions.
Other union leaders are allegedly seeking to profit from the airline personally. Some union leaders who have acquired positions of influence are now reportedly soliciting bribes from their junior colleagues to be assigned on the crews of lucrative international slights, a process euphemistically referred to inside the airline as ‘selling flights’.
The managing director is also reportedly under severe pressure from union leaders to cease investigations of allegations of corruption against pilots and other employees. Union leaders also insist that any files pertaining to the investigations be handed over to them, presumably for destruction.
Sources inside the airline describe the state of PIA as one of administrative paralysis in the face of billions of rupees in mounting losses and unions exercising an inordinate degree of influence.
The chaos is beginning to affect PIA flights and passengers. A PIA flight to Kuala Lumpur was recently forced to land by Indonesian Air Force jets because the flight operations department of the airline had failed to request permission to cross Indonesian airspace on the way to Malaysia. The flight eventually made it to Kuala Lumpur after several hours in Indonesia.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 14th, 2011.
Nearly a month after taking charge, the new management team of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has not yet been able to assert itself against the influence of the powerful unions and other interest groups at the national airline.
Nadeem Yusufzai, formerly of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), was appointed managing director of PIA on February 11 after the forced resignation of his predecessor Ejaz Haroon following a six day strike by the pilots union that left the airline with over Rs1 billion in losses.
The strike was ostensibly called to protest a potential codeshare agreement between PIA and Turkish Airlines, which would allegedly have resulted in PIA giving up its routes to Europe and North America to Turkish Airlines while redirecting its fleet to expand flights to East Asia and Australia. The ministry of defence, the majority shareholder of the PIA, denied any agreement took place but the pilot’s union continued its agitation until Haroon was forced to resign.
According to sources familiar with the matter, the joint action committee – the umbrella group of employees’ unions that led the strike effort – began pressuring the new PIA head as soon as he took his position. Among items on their wish-list were appointments to lucrative positions for some of the leading members of the committee and their associates.
Among other favours being demanded by union leaders are the expansion of the top level of PIA’s management team, which had been cut down by Haroon in order to reduce redundancy and waste. The union wants five general manager positions, a level that Haroon had cut down completely.
Many of the PIA officers appointed by Haroon are either being sidelined or replaced completely. Union leaders are reportedly pressuring Yusufzai to replace the heads of the airline’s engineering, marketing, human resources and flight services departments. Yusufzai has been handed a list of preferred candidates by the unions to replace the officers currently occupying these positions.
Other union leaders are allegedly seeking to profit from the airline personally. Some union leaders who have acquired positions of influence are now reportedly soliciting bribes from their junior colleagues to be assigned on the crews of lucrative international slights, a process euphemistically referred to inside the airline as ‘selling flights’.
The managing director is also reportedly under severe pressure from union leaders to cease investigations of allegations of corruption against pilots and other employees. Union leaders also insist that any files pertaining to the investigations be handed over to them, presumably for destruction.
Sources inside the airline describe the state of PIA as one of administrative paralysis in the face of billions of rupees in mounting losses and unions exercising an inordinate degree of influence.
The chaos is beginning to affect PIA flights and passengers. A PIA flight to Kuala Lumpur was recently forced to land by Indonesian Air Force jets because the flight operations department of the airline had failed to request permission to cross Indonesian airspace on the way to Malaysia. The flight eventually made it to Kuala Lumpur after several hours in Indonesia.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 14th, 2011.