PALPA announces ‘grand alliance’ to protest PIA’s new strategies

Timing coincides with govt’s announcement of restarting privatisation process

KARACHI: As the movement to privatise the national carrier gains momentum, the pilots’s association - which has historically been against the plan - is also gearing up to take the management head on.

However, its official statement said that it is going to fight the manner in which the management is going about making operational changes including the suspension of flights to New York.

As a result, the pilots’ association of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) is now looking at establishing a ‘grand alliance’ at the national level to take the management head on against these changes.

For the ‘fight’, Pakistan Airline Pilots’ Association (PALPA) has announced the formation of the alliance after the management suspended flights to New York recently, according to a statement on Thursday.

“PIA, which is an international airline, is being transformed into a small regional airline,” an officer bearer of the association told The Express Tribune on Thursday.



He said the purpose of the grand alliance is to help PIA expand its reach instead of clipping its wings. “PIA remained one of the top 10 airlines in the world till the 70s and 80s,” he said.

“PIA operations are being limited to Jeddah. Foreign airlines were allowed to fly to/from multiple airports in Pakistan, which are effecting operations of the national carrier,” he said.

The alliance would engage the management in dialogue to convince it to change its business strategy towards revival and growth from the current anti-business policies. The office-bearer said will be presented before several associations at a grand meeting to be summoned shortly.

There are some 10-12 working associations involved in the airline including that of engineers, ground staff, senior staff, cabin crew and within the elected representative body, the Collective Bargaining Agent (CBA).

Advisor to Prime Minister on Aviation Sardar Mehtab Ahmed Khan said recently that PIA has temporarily suspended flights to/from New York, US, as this alone was incurring a loss of Rs2.25 billion per year for the national airline.

Overall, the airline’s accumulated losses have gone past Rs400 billion.

Also, the grand alliance is being formed after the government announced a bailout package of Rs13.6 billion for PIA and stated its intention to re-start the process of its privatization.  To recall, a similar grand alliance - the Joint Action Committee of PIA Employees (JACPIAE) - was formed by the associations two years ago against the government’s move to privatise the airline.

The alliance kept PIA jets grounded for three consecutive days after a member of the alliance was killed in a violent crackdown by the government on a protesting rally.



The strike resulted in over Rs4 billion in revenue losses.

The movement, however, managed to force the government to retreat from its plan.

Later on, the government issued suspension orders for employees found involved in the movement. It then withdrew those too, after employees returned to work.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 10^th, 2017.

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