On 9th of Moharram, PIA flight from Manchester PK 710 with over 300 passengers was delayed at Manchester for over 4 hours on ground for some strange technical reasons. The passengers were not told about nature of this so called technical delay, but as soon as the MD arrived with a group of people on the aircraft after about 4 hours of wait, the doors closed and flight departed. It was a strange technical defect that rectified the moment MD was on board.
During the flight, passengers were informed that because of technical reasons the aircraft will land at Karachi, instead of going to its original destination, Lahore. All passengers were booked for Lahore, yet when PK 710 landed at Karachi, the MD and his team disembarked conveniently while the other passengers were shifted to another aircraft which took these unfortunate passengers to its destination Lahore at 4:15PM instead of its scheduled arrival time of 6:10 AM in the morning.
The issue is if this aircraft could land at Karachi, it could also have landed at Lahore. No wonder PIA is going in loss with such a management who seem to be assigned the role of undertakers of this once glorious airline. PIA losses have risen from Rs 42 billion in March 2008 to over Rs 88 billion in September 2010 although worldwide aviation industry is making profits.
The IATA has just raised record earnings in 2010 to $15.1 billion from 8.9 Billion as economic conditions improved. Asia alone has posted a record half yearly profit for 2010 of $7.7 billion.
PIA regularity has in the last two years deteriorated very badly and it is being rated as the worst airline in terms of regularity. It has just completed its worst Hajj operations. The catering contract for all PIA flights operating out of Europe has been given to a firm owned by the family of its CEO, while his brother-in law, a former steward who was sacked for shop theft at Dubai, has been rehired and posted to Barcelona as Catering Manager to look after the business.
Pilferages and mismanagement account for PIA losses, inspite of the fact that PIA’s average fleet life is comparable now to Delta Airlines, which has posted Third Quarter profits of over $900 million. PIA maintenance expenses have risen sharply since this management took over because of controversial Maintenance Repair Overhaul contracts.
The utilisation of Boeing 777 for scheduled operations is under 11.6 hours instead of the 16 hours daily utilisation projected in the Business Plan submitted for procurement of these aircrafts. Despite such poor utilisation, this management wants to buy 40 more new aircrafts, with accumulated losses of over Rs 88 billion and liabilities of over Rs 300 billion.
SHAHZAD KHALIL
Sialkot
