KARACHI:
Faced with shortage of aircraft, the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) rolled back flights to Germany, Netherlands and India.
A spokesman for the national flag carrier said the decision was taken in the wake of a review of flight operations to find the best way to utilise existing fleet of aircraft, some of which are already busy with the massive Hajj operation.
“Flights to Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Delhi and Mumbai were also running below capacity,” he said.
This decision is, however, temporary and the flights to European destination will resume after the end of the “lean season in November,” said the spokesman.
The decision to discontinue flights has been severely criticised by the airline’s employees who blame the management for doing irreparable damage to the state airliner. It will become difficult for the PIA to attract passengers once they start travelling with other carriers, foresees one of the airline’s unions.
PIA was operating six weekly flights to India and one each to Frankfurt and Amsterdam. The airline had to deploy two of its Boeing 777s and as many B-747s for the Hajj flights, which will run till November 18.
Joint Action Committee of PIA’s Employees, which represents the pilots, says seat booking volume rose in the last six months and revenue was more than 50 percent on the route of Islamabad to Frankfurt.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 10th, 2013.
COMMENTS (17)
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startpia again to amsterdam and farnkfourt germny we have nothing from pakistan,just only pia ,pia is not more a good airline but all pakistani love to flay with pia
Did you know that online tickets one can not buy. They have been temporarily suspended! It's been 8 month now. To buy a ticket I have to find the handful of agents that sell tickets globally and then go to my bank an wire money! And I still fly Pia as get me to Lahore eventually! NO one will fly Pia from the western world if we can't buy tickets online!!!!!!!
@Adnan Siddiqi: Impressed. You lcearly know more about India than many of your brethren.
@Naresh: Dr. Dang does not appear to be sugesting that India should give the 60000 crore rupees to PIA. Rather he is sarcastic about the unnecessary budgetary support provided by India to Air India.
Better for the GoP to close it and buy 11%-21% stakes of Pakistan Private airlines and gain money as an investor on monthly and yearly basis other than taxes.
@Dr Dang: @Prabhjyot Singh Madan: Give PIA Rs.60,000 crore till 2020, like Air India, even it will fly. . Why should Indian Government give PIA INR 60,000 Crores? PIA is not the Problem of any Indian in General and the Indian Government in Particular. . If your Heart bleeds so much for PIA then please start an International Fund Raising Scheme and Target USA, Saudia Arabia, China, UK, Japan etc. . It is a fact that Pakistan's Higher than the Himalayas and Deeper than the Pacific Ocean Friend etc. with Over US$ Three Trillions in Foreign Exchange Reserves could easily write a Cheque for the PIA in respect of the amount of US$ Ten Billion i.e. INR 60,000 Crores i.e. INR 600 Billion. Why China is not helping its Time Tested and Ever Supporting Friend is a point for the Pakistanis to consider. . Cheers
It's the Beginning of the End for PIA.
@Prabhjyot Singh Madan: Give PIA Rs.60,000 crore till 2020, like Air India, even it will fly.
@Prabhjyot Singh Madan:
Paa Ji! The reason Air India is lacking at the moment despite absorbing Indian Airlines, is the stiff competition from private carriers in India like Jet Airways, Spice Jet, Kingfisher and IndiGo. Pakistani airline industry is not as huge as India and that is the reason that PIA has been slacking off for a number of years, lack of competition!
When you fly to international destinations like Frankfurt and Amsterdam once a week, the aircraft would be empty!! Which airline in its right frame of mind operates once a week to any destination and that to to places like Frankfurt and Amsterdam of all places. Is this the 50's or 60' when such frequency of flights was because of a nascent airline industry and air travel was considered an elite mode of travel.
Airlines like EK, Etihad and Qatar have twice daily services to these cities or maybe even more and all the flights are loaded to the brim. PIA would be better off not serving such stations at such a laughable frequency. Invariably the airline would incur huge losses when it only flies almost empty once a week.
@MK: who cares about air india when u have air asia starting in few months....
Air India is as bad as PIA, if not worse. Both are horrible, horrible airlines.
The efficiancy of air india has increased a lot but both pia and air india has the problem of excessive employees to aircraft ratio. Indian government has the money to bail out air india but pakistan govt has none of this luxury comparatively.I would like to travel by pia but it has gained so much negative publicity and also does not land here in Calcutta too. I hope pia revives and so does air india. Rab rakha
@MAD: I know and it doesn't need any intelligence to figure out. When PIA was having direct flights to Lahore.. the fare were comparatively low on Etihad as well as on PIA due to competition among both airlines. Seats availability was higher and unlike Etihad, PIA offered 50+7KG luggage while Etihad offer 30+7. Since the closure of PIA direct Flights to Lahore, Etihad airfare is increased and they charge passengers what they like.
Same applies from Lahore to Abu Dhabi Flights, check out the Etihad airfares versus PIA as well the seat availability during peak/holiday seasons.
My Question is, why PIA has stopped the Lahore-Abu Dhabi direct Flights? Sooner or later they will do the same on Dubai routes. These are one of the most profitable routes for PIA being the quantity of expatriates living in Abu Dhabi.
To be honest there wasnt much traffic on the Karachi Dehli flight I took last month. The plane was almost empty. So either they need to properly market themselves and clear up their mess or they are better off suspending this flight for now!
@Mohammad: yes an Etihad Airways has added a second daily flight between Lahore and Abu Dhabi. Go figure.
The only solution to revive PIA is to import a non national CEO, appoint him for 10 years and give him full authority to hire and fire, who should not listen to political or government instructions and just work as a professional for the best interest of company.
His authority and orders should be protected by law, shouldn't be challenged in cheap courts and he should only report to Prime Minister of Pakistan.
they have already stopped flight from Abu Dhabi to Lahore and no one took notice... I can't understand Emirates who borrowed two Jets from PIA to establish Emirates Airline Company are going to 100+ destination and world's number one airline even surpassing British/American/Cathay Pacific like airlines.. why PIA went down so deep that we can not pull it out.
PIA hold the brightest history and once treated as No. 1 airline of the world... and once President of United States travelled to China in PIA instead Air Force One. The downfall of PIA shows that as a nation we are complete failed and do not have any capability to run our departments and companies effectively... be it Steel Mill or PIA.