ISLAMABAD – After changing its position many a time over the issue of selling of PIA’s routes to a Turkish airline, Minister for Defence Ch. Ahmad Mukhtar Wednesday defended the national airlines’ decision, advocating that through this deal, the PIA would be able to extend its routes from 40 to 140 each week.
“It is wrong to assume that we have our own routes. There are no specific routes for any airline. However, the PIA’s collaboration with the Turkish airline can help us increase our destinations from 40 to 140 per week,” remarked the minister while responding to different supplementary queries during the Question Hour. He proposed that it would be better for the government to hold a special sitting of the concerned standing committee for a comprehensive briefing over the issue so as all rumors in this regard may be quashed once and for all.
“The most profitable routes for the PIA are in Gulf including from Pakistan to Jeddah, Riadh and UAE. We are making no changes in these routes,” he added. In a written reply, the minister said volatility in oil prices, devaluation of rupee, slow decision making, challenges in aviation, and non-commercial commitments had resulted into huge losses to the state-owned airline.
In a written reply, Mukhtar said the PIA’s business plan 2010-2014 has been approved by the Board of Directors of the corporation and the same has also been provided to sub-committee of the standing committee on Defence for review.
“The plan gives an overall picture of the financial position of the airline keeping in view the general economic conditions and financial and operational limitations of the corporation and the government with an objective to make it a sustainable and profitable entity. The plan also provides for the identification of additional fleet requirement and how it will be financed, measures to be taken for revenue enhancement, route rationalization and human resource cost rationalization in a way that would ensure optimal utilization of resources,” he added.
The minister said study of various aspects was conducted for the preparation of the business plan, including the identification of causes for losses of PIA. He said that the study was completed before the business plan was submitted to the government.
