ICCI chief suggests privatisation of PIA

The Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) continues to perform poorly despite the government’s continued efforts, in the form of inflows worth billions of rupees, in effort to keep the airlines afloat. While giving his reaction to the government’s approval of Rs7 billion bailout package to PIA on Saturday, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Zafar Bakhtawari said the best option for government was to privatise PIA immediately, which would improve its performance and to save the national exchequer from further drain. Quoting PIA’s own report, Bakhtawari said that the airline has suffered losses worth Rs119.84b over the last 10 years, which is not acceptable for a commercial entity and shows the extent of its dreadful performance. A flight delay ratio of more than 35 percent is resulting in many passengers shifting to other airlines. He said out of the 34 aircrafts in PIA’s fleet, 24 are serviceable while the aircraft-to-employee ratio in PIA currently stands at 552 employees per aircraft compared to global average ratio of 120. All these indicators call for urgent restructuring of the airline and symbolise the need for privatisation to bring professionalism in its operations, and to get rid of huge subsidies, which the government is being forced to keep the national carrier running. Bakhtawari said unnecessary protection given to PIA by the government has made the airline more inefficient and more of a liability. Furthermore, he said, the non-availability of direct PIA flights to Pakistan was one of the reasons discouraging tourists from coming to Pakistan. He said the government should adopt an open sky policy and provide incentives to other airlines to initiate direct flights to Pakistan. It would help improve the connectivity of Pakistan at a regional and an international level and also facilitate trade and exports of the country.