PIA employees will not provide any service on the leased aircraft and will demand the management to bring its own fleet into operation and refrain from playing in the hands of few directors who have vested interest.
A spokesman for the Joint Action Committee of PIA Employees (JACPIE) said PIA flights operation is still facing difficulties maintaining flight punctuality as deliberate shortage of aircraft was created by management to justify acquisition of aircraft on wet lease.
He said that officially the management is denying a deal for Airbus A320s but on the other hand it is seeking permission from Civil Aviation Authority for certification. The employee unions and representatives had advised the management that if more aircraft are needed after bringing PIA’s own fleet into operations, it should opt for Boeing 737s which are already in service in PIA.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 28th, 2011.
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This is non-sense. The Boeing 737-300 has served PIA for at least 25 years by now and is a gass-guzzler by modern day fuel efficiency standards. It needs to be phased out.
IA should be shut down immediately as it is bankrupt. Without government handouts, it would not survive for a day.
So shutting it down will do the following ;
1.Cut off the financial hemorrhaging
All liabilities to be paid off with current assets only. This would mean that all creditors would be getting only so many paisa to each rupee they are owed.3.Lay off all employees. If the employees cannot understand how a company works and don't have an interest in seeing it being profitable, then they deserve to sit at home and think about what may have been. Fire them all.
Start a new airline with leased aircraft only. If Air Blue can be run profitably on this basis, there is no reason a new airline cannot.
New airline is wholly new entity and does not require any baggage i.e. employees from previous airline.
Fleet expansion takes place after a few years or even sooner after business plan has been validated and company turns a profit.
Yes, there will be a lot of protest against this but that is the way system works for a company to be made profitable. There is no point throwing good money after bad money.
Alternately, the best option is to let private operators take over. Government should be in business of governing the country, not trying to run businesses. We have seen the results of government being run as a business and it is painful and expensive.
Why Boeing 737?. Why not Airbus?. let this decision be taken on needs,cost benefit and not on union noise making which has destroyed the airline
Kudos to JACPIE - they apparently have done the investigative work that is usually the domain of an inquisitive news reporter and put a sensitive issue on the front page. Better yet - without maintenance the plane won't fly and the lease probably has strict requirements for maintenance so maybe the lessor will take the aircraft back.