KARACHI:
Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) is planning to acquire two Boeing 777 aircraft on a dry lease – a lease arrangement whereby an aircraft financing company provides an aircraft without insurance, crew, supporting equiment etc – strictly following the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) rules.
Presently, the aging fleet of PIA comprise 38 aircraft out of which at least seven remain grounded for the scheduled maintenance besides the out of service aircraft due to technical reasons and bird hits.
All the relevant rules of PPRA have been observed on the tender to the evaluation and related processes, a PIA press release on Friday said.
PIA said that the allegations raised by the Transparency International Pakistan (TIP) are unjustified that could be due to their lack of understanding about the technicalities of the induction of aircraft.
TIP earlier blamed the national carrier for specifying the brand names for the Boeing 737-800 aircraft. The same was very much in
line with the PPRA rules as the identical type of aircraft is in operation by PIA in its fleet.
Induction of the same type of aircrafts results in enormous savings in terms of training cabin and cockpit crew, maintenance engineers and spare parts availability.
TIP is accusing PIA for not specifying the engine brands and may acquire the Boeing 777 aircraft fitted with Pratt and Whitney engines instead of General Electric Aviation engines, it said, adding that the strange logic of TIP on specifying brand names is beyond understanding. PIA did not specify the brand name of the engines will acquire the aircraft with lowest cost to the airline.
These aircrafts are being leased for the efficient maintenance of the operating schedule and for the Hajj season commencing mid-September.
The airline requires additional aircrafts on an urgent basis to serve its passengers in the Hajj season.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 18th, 2012.
COMMENTS (8)
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You shall soon see that Shaheen Air and Airblue willl start giving a very tough time to PIA. The induction of the latest wide-body airplanes in the private sector will cost PIA dearly.
PIA is a failed organization. Do not expect any sensible decision from their illiterate management.
I am not much of a traveller on PIA for international routes but recently got a chance to do so and believe me...it is aleast comparable (if not better) than other airlines. But their problem lies in domestic routes where they dont have much of a competition. Their planes/service in use for domestic routes are pathetic and need major revamping...
Why compare with Air India. why not with better airlines.
...why they are taking Pratt's engines, and not GE, is because the new GE engines are about 20% more fuel efficient than the old ones and about 30% more efficient than the P&W.
@Amitabh...not only that, PIA is rated better thn Air India too, lmfao, i can only imagine how bad air india might be cz PIA is crap
PIA have a far better record than Air India :(
There is no question that PIA needs to modernize its fleet. But I wish they would not make scandal out of every decision they make.
A lot of it is misinfrmation to be sure. But where their is smoke, there is fire.
Thanks ET for showing a PIA 777 at an airport where it was forced to land because of a bomb scare.
Are you guys for real?
Please go to Airliners. net and you will get hundreds of photo's of PIA aircrat all over the world.