PIA’s Boeing 777 grounded for 1.5 years declared fit to fly after overhaul

KARACHI: Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has revamped and added another Boeing 777 aircraft to its fleet and raised the total number of operational aircraft to 31.

A Boeing 777 bearing registration number BHV, which was completely neglected and considered abandoned more than a year and half ago, was fully repaired and overhauled by the engineering and maintenance team, which worked day and night for its restoration, said PIA spokesperson Mashhood Tajwar in a press statement.

The test flight was conducted successfully from Karachi to Islamabad and vice versa, he added.

After assuming the charge of PIA CEO in November 2018, Air Marshal Arshad Malik directed the engineering team to make the aircraft operational at the earliest so that revenue could be generated.

With BHV timely back in fleet, the number of total operational Boeing 777 has now risen to 12 and they will be of great help in the forthcoming Hajj season. Besides this, the airline has 11 models of A320 and eight ATRs.

"The aircraft was being cannibalised. It was abandoned and its parts were used in maintenance of other aircraft," revealed Tajwar. "The current management undertook this task as a challenge and repaired it." The aircraft was repaired by PIA's own engineers, however, its parts were imported, he said.

Out of 31 aircraft, around 25 remain in operation and other go into routine checking, he said.

The airline has three types of aircraft, Airbus A320, Boeing 777 and ATR. One airplane from each group goes into routine checking.

"The current management is also working on an A320 and an ATR," said Tajwar. "After maintenance of the two aircraft, we will increase the number of operational aircraft to 27." A320 would be recovered by the last week of June, the spokesperson expressed hope.

"The Boeing 777 was grounded somewhere around January 2018 and after that, almost four managements changed and yet no one took notice, therefore, the entire credit of overhaul of this airplane goes to the present management," he said.

The national airline CEO felicitated the engineering team and stressed that this showed commitment and dedication of the team.

He appreciated the efforts of engineering, supply chain, finance, flight operations and all other concerned departments in achieving this feat, which was considered by some as next to impossible.

The aircraft, grounded for lack of spares and financial constraints, has now been made operational.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 1^st, 2019.

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