Appointments on merit alone can turn around loss making state owned corporations profitable. If anybody has any doubts, a comparative study of the managements of both PIA and THY (Turk Hava Yollari) will reveal the impact of appointing qualified men of integrity.
In 2000 THY was a loss making national airline owned by the state, which was run by mediocrity of uniformed retired officers or cronies of the military junta, while PIA till year 2000 was still an airline which was almost breaking even. In Nov 2002 Tayipp Erdogan’s party won the election and in 2003 they started making changes in the airline management.
The CEO of THY Dr Temel Kotil is a PhD from University of Michigan in Aeronautical Sciences and Technology, who had served as a guest professor in University of Illionois, USA and also as Research Engineer in Advanced Innovative Technologies Inc in Troy, New York before he joined Turkish Airline in 2003 as Deputy GM Turkish Technic Inc and CEO of THY in 2005. The Deputy Chairman of THY with rank of Deputy GM Dr Cemal Sali is a PhD in International Commercial Arbitration and Chairman Hamdi Topcu is a graduate from Marmara University in Economics and Administrative Sciences. THY has a fleet of 129 serviceable aircrafts headed by a management with only one General Manager, a total of 12,500 personnel and a load factor of 70.9 percent. Its net profit is over 559 trillion Turkish Lira (TL) for the period Jan to Dec 2009, while the total income was 723 trillion TL and total expenses of 177 trillion TL.
In 2000, THY had a loss of 69 trillion TL and a load factor of 56.4 percent.
PIA’s current MD has never attended any college. His Deputy MD is on contract with approval of his US employer at a tax free salary of $25,000 per month, while the Director Marketing is just a graduate. There are over 15 other executive directors and over 70 General Managers.
PIA claims to have a load factor of over 75 percent, total personnel exceeding 18,000 and a fleet of under 42 aircrafts. Its total accumulated losses are over Rs 88 billion as of Sept 2010 which are in spite of a load factor of over 75 percent.
It is for the Federal Government, the National Assembly and the members of combined opposition to determine the cause of such huge losses.
T MALIK
Lahore
