The government on Friday decided to engage international operators to help run three major airports of Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi with a view to attracting direct foreign investment and providing world-class facilities to passengers.
The decision was taken in a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to discuss the matters pertaining to the aviation sector, a PM Office statement said.
Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, Aviation Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique, Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif, Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar, Special Assistant to Prime Minister Jahanzeb Khan and relevant senior government officials participated in the meeting.
It was decided that the government would hire the services of operators of international repute to run three major airports – the Jinnah International Airport, Islamabad International Airport and Allama Iqbal International Airport – in the first phase.
As per the plan, the international operators would help run the said entities for a period of 20-25 years.
The meeting also decided to engage the International Finance Corporation to provide consultancy services.
The international operators would provide the services of international standards at the said airports besides uplifting them through foreign investment.
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The meeting gave the Public-Private Partnership Authority a go-ahead to initiate the formalities.
The prime minister instructed the authority to ensure the accomplishment of the process transparently and in accordance with the highest standards.
The meeting was told that 44 countries were pursuing the public-private-partnership formula including the US, the UK, India, Bahrain and Brazil where the airports were run under the PPP mode.
The meeting was told that the PIA achieved revenue of Rs172 billion during the year 2022, which was the highest revenue in the history of the state airline.
It was further informed that four A-320 aircraft had been added to the PIA fleet and the airline's network had also been expanded and the PIA was currently operating 330 weekly flights.
The meeting was informed that a strategy had been made to make the PIA a profitable airline and efforts were being made to evade the ban imposed by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency.
It was also informed that wide body aircrafts were being added to the PIA fleet and a plan was ready to revive its brand image
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