Despite various complaints by passengers, the national flag carrier has failed to run smooth flight operations. Flight statistics show that Pakistan International Airline (PIA) had to cancel over 214 scheduled flights since October 1, after the start of pre-Haj operations. Statistics made available to Pakistan Today indicate that PIA had to cancel as many as 148 flights on the pretext of engineering or technical issues, while 35 flights had been cancelled due to poor load and 31 flights had to be cancelled for other reasons. Figures show that the national flag carrier had also cancelled 31 Haj flights for which it did had been doing homework for months.
Sources revealed that the PIA had an army of engineers and technical staff to keep the airlines’ fleet operational, but recently, to avoid theft and pilferage of expensive spare parts and other accessories, PIA had outsourced it store operations. They said earlier, the airline had a number of vendors on list which were providing spare parts for the aircraft but after the outsourcing, the airline was now dependent on a Dubai-based vendor, which was enjoying monopolistic position and the airline was incurring losses due to unavailability of necessary parts.
The sources said PIA had acquired two old and fuel inefficient aircraft (SX-TIC, SX-TIE) for Haj operations on lease from a Greek operator but one of these aircraft could not get a go ahead form the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) for around two weeks due to safety concerns. However, they said after cancellation of dozens of international and domestic flights, including Haj flights, PIA finally got the approval to operate the leased Boeing 747 (200 series) for scheduled flights.
They pointed out that the PIA management had managed to obtain over 25 waivers from the CAA Pakistan for a leased aircraft, SX-TIE, which included very important-safety violations. They indicated that according to the agreement, PIA had to pay $25,000 to Hellenic Aviation form which the aircrafts were leased, even if the aircraft were not operational. In addition, the national flag carrier had to pay per diem for Hellenic Aviation’s crew, engineers and coordinator weekly in advance.
PIA sources pointed out that the airline already had latest and fuel efficient Boeing 747 300 series aircraft, which had been grounded to materialise this dubious deal. They believed that PIA could import engines and other necessary spare parts to make its grounded aircraft operational in lesser cost than that of the deal. Per the lease agreement of SX-TIC, they revealed, in case the aircraft was not available after I5 days of start of operation of SX-TIE (aircraft leased under a separate agreement signed between PIA and Hellenic Imperial Airways), PIA will pay an amount of $1.1 million on the start date. PIA will pay another $400,000 on the start date and $0.5 million at the start of the post Haj operation, they said, adding that reconciliation and payment will be made within 30 days after the Haj operation, after adjustment the maintenance cost of work already performed by PIA on the leased aircraft.
According to the agreement, PIA would pay $1.125 million in advance for the minimum guaranteed block hour against this aircraft SX-TIE on receiving the clearance from Saudi Arabia civil aviation authority and an additional amount of $1.125 million as advance payment for minimum guaranteed block hour against this aircraft SX-TIE after 15 days of start of operation.
They revealed that PIA will pay an additional $1.125 million in advance for minimum guaranteed block hour against this aircraft SX-TIE at the start of the post Haj operation and an additional amount of $1.125 million as advance payment for minimum guaranteed block hour against this aircraft SX-TIE after 15 days of operation of the post hajj operation (second phase of operation).
