Pakistan International Airlines has decided to close down the flights and offices in US, Australia and other European countries due to shortage of planes and persistent growing deficit. According to PIA, the ever-increasing deficit of national airlines has swelled beyond Rs 180 billion. Media reports said the decision to suspend flights to other countries had been taken in a high-level meeting. Sources said PIA would shut its offices and flights to Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Leeds by the middle of September this year. Sources said this was the peak season of passengers and overseas Pakistanis came home in large numbers, therefore, the decision to close down the offices in these cities would be taken in the middle of September to avoid any inconvenience. PIA offices at Chicago, Glasgow and Sydney would be closed down in September. Confirming the reports on the closure, a PIA spokesman said the decision had been taken to rein in deficit and for want of planes. The loss incurring stations would be shut and number of flights would be increased on profit making routes, including Dubai, UAE, Doha and Jeddah.
These are typically bureaucratic decisions to destroy the national carrier by gagging its resources. The whole organization has been shaken up by snap decisions; one debacle after another. The people sitting in Islamabad probably do not know what to do with PIA or they have got orders from the top to finish off the corporation as soon as possible so that it could be privatized at throwaway prices and handed over to the vested interests of their choice. Its not 90's and its not MCB. This time around any move to patronize any industrial tycoon is bound to boomerange at the shaky PMLN-led government in Islamabad. This hide-and-seek exercise needs to be stopped before it is stopped by the Supreme Court who is already holding hearings on the precarious organization and management conditions of PIA.
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