‘PIA has added 18 aircraft to its fleet in four years’

Lawmaker says all planes acquired on lease due to airline’s financial constraints

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has added 18 aircraft to its fleet in the last four years, said Cabinet Secretariat Parliamentary Secretary Raja Javed Ikhlas, adding that no purchase has been made due to financial constraints faced by the national carrier.

During the question hour on Wednesday, Ikhlas told the National Assembly that PIA may look to acquire aircraft once its financial situation improves.

The airline’s accumulated losses have surpassed Rs319 billion with the carrier incurring a loss of over Rs11 billion in the January-March period alone.



Ikhlas said that PIA currently has 37 aircraft in its fleet, compared with 19 in 2013 when the PML-N government came to power.

Ikhlas said that the lease agreement of four aircraft will end on January 31 and the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has floated a tender to acquire more planes on dry and wet lease.

In response to a question, he said the free and concessional tickets given to PIA employees have no monetary value as all the tickets are subject to availability of load. A ticket to a PIACL employee is only confirmed when a vacant seat is available on a particular flight.

Meanwhile, Ikhlas said the quality of new aircraft will be assessed thoroughly.

“The quality and standard of a new aircraft is assessed by a team of representatives, belonging to technical departments of PIA. However, the aircraft can operate only after the technical clearance of the CAA,” he said.

He said that one PIA aircraft, an A310, has been grounded in Germany. After obtaining a waiver from the CAA, the non-fly worthy grounded aircraft was rented to a film company based in London to shoot a film in Malta. Thereafter, there was an attempt to sell that aircraft to a museum in Leipzig, Germany during 2016, while bypassing the formalities like Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) rules and PIA internal procedures.



Ikhlas said that an inquiry was held and former PIA Acting CEO Bernd Hildenbrand was sacked. The aircraft is still PIA’s property and its sale is being processed under the relevant rules.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 25^th, 2018.

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