The Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has formalised wet leasing of three A-330 aircraft from Sri-Lankan Airlines at a ceremony held in Colombo on Friday. PIA Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Bernd Hildenbrand signed the contract with Sri-Lankan Airlines Chairman Ajith Dias and CEO Capt. Suren Ratwatte.
The contract has materialised after a series of negotiations between the two sides, said PIA Public Affairs General Manager Daniyal Gillani. The first of these aircraft will be delivered during the next week, while the rest will arrive in the next few months, he added.
These aircraft are in brand new condition and will be used for PIA’s Premier Service, giving passengers a better experience, and allowing the airline to start regaining its market share, PIA officials said.
PIA Premier is scheduled to be launched on August 14, initially only to London. There will be six weekly Premier Service flights to London, including three from Islamabad and three from Lahore. Later, with the addition of more aircraft, the service will be expanded to other destinations.
Chairman Azam Saigol appreciated the efforts of the PIA team led by Hildenbrand in finalising this contract.
PMLN overnment achieved another milestone today. So called #PIA #PremiumService is the biggest hoax ever and here are the details.
PIA just acquired 4 (1 + 3) A330 planes from SriLankan Airline on wet lease (means Lankan crew will operate these flights). SriLankan government is getting rid of these planes after nationalizing and restructuring their airline and also due to the fact that lease agreement with AerCap was signed at very high rates, at least 20% above the market rate for these planes.
SriLankan previously committed to pay US $ 1.4 million a month for these aircraft to the AerCap. while the industry is leasing them out for amounts of US$ 900,000 to 1,000,000 a month. Today SriLankan was paying at least US$ 400,000 dollars a month extra and they had to continue this for 12 more years. However, SriLankans are at least much smarter than government of Pakistan to figure out their bad decision making and currently aiming to use PIA as dumping grounds for their expensive leases.
This is basic math and even a high school kid can crunch the numbers to extrapolate the fact that this deal is neither viable nor feasible for Pakistan's National Carrier. It didn't make any sense for Lankans at the first place. Yet somehow miraculously and very artistically #PMLN wrapped this garbage deal in a fancy slogan of so called premium service once again to sale it to poor and clueless awaam of Pakistan. Either they are too dumb to make such decisions or perhaps someone in PM house got a big cut to bail SriLankan out of their misery. It's beyond ones comprehension when we can instead opt for cheaper direct leases from the international leasing companies for similar quick delivery of aircraft.
Mian Jee, Why???
Perhaps no commission there for Mr. 10%+
Its the same old wine with brand new label of ab-e-zam-zam!!!
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