Can someone confirm if this is accurate?

[PakCan]

How can anyone be against privatization. We need to privatize PIA and some of the other white elephants that are being operated by the government. PiA is filled with employees that were given jobs due to political affiliation. Privatise the airline, keep 49% stake and watch it become profitable. This strike by PiA employees is all backed by Ppp and MQM, if government backs down now then tax payers should keep their cheque book ready for the long haul.

Decreasing the number of corporations run by government will reduce their ability to buy votes by offering jobs to individuals. Next step should be to privatize airports, majority of first world countries have taken these steps and Pakistan should follow the same path.

 

[Genghis khan1]

PIA base should be moved from Karachi to Islamabad new airport to reduce the influence of two most corrupt parties MQM and PPP, known for their political based hirings. Rehire all the staff, based on merit. Major upgradation of PIA engineering facilities and the fleet. There are so many Pakistani abroad, that with these simple step PIA will start earning profit, without even major advertising campaign unlike Turkish or Emirates.

 

[ACE OF THE AIR]

Don't need to sell Pakistan, but selling loss making State entities like PIA and Pakistan Steel would certainly help save hundreds of millions of dollars annually that could then be potentially invested in education, health, infrastructure and law and order.

Loss making entities like PIA and Pakistan Steel play a significant role (though of course they are not the only factor) in skewing the overall standing of Pakistan when compared to other countries.

To destroy an airline's profit is very easy..
HOW?.
just reroute its flights creating loss of passengers and additional costs.
deal for airport slots at times when the passengers do not want to fly... KHI-ISB-KHI 1100 -1500 hrs.
Fly Long Range B777-200 LR on Short routes ie domestic flight. These aircraft are profitable after 15 hr of flights.

Karachi is the main Technical Hub where as Lahore has the most number of departures. Why no Technical facility was not made. Even know that a pro Lahore Govt. is in power.

There are more examples

It is not as simple as you are stating. There are many other legal issues also which can not be disregarded. These are not just through the Pakistan legislation but international commitments and agreements.

 

[ACE OF THE AIR]

Governments, even honest ones, are inherently constrained when it comes to taking tough decisions necessary for the survival or expansion of commercial entities that they run.

Everyone agrees that PIA and PS are bloated and need massive downsizing, but elected governments will always be handicapped in making that decision precisely because the tamasha we are seeing now will take place and it'll be painted in the media as an example of a callous government that cares nothing for the electorate etc etc.

Privatization is the way to go.

One has to realise that there are two types of employees in an airline.

Technical personnel (Licensed by Civil Aviation)
They include Pilots, Flight Services, Flight Operations, Maintenance, Ground handling. All these are professionals and safety oriented hence they have to work in accordance to strict working regulations so that the rest is maintained.

Non Technical personnels
They are all those that are non certified by the Civil Aviation Authority.

At an average an aircraft is profitable once it fly for 16 hrs per day. (Flight Time ie the time in the air) To make an aircraft fly for such a high time requires that the number of people per aircraft are increased if the number of aircraft in the fleet are less and it has higher number of flights..

Boeing and Airbus the most common aircraft manufacturers recommends a minimum of 4-5 sets of technical personnel per aircraft.

Now PIA also has a handicap that it has to maintain different aircraft types hence it has to increase the numbers of technical personnel because one person can not work on the other till he / she has passed the technical requirements and trainings.

An airline is not like other businesses where one can disregard some thing for the time being, in an airline that can come and haunt for ever.

One aircrash and the airline goes from profitable to bankrupt. Remember after 9/11 London - USA tickets were being sold for free but there were no passengers. Still British Airways had to fly so that the schedule had to be maintained.

 

[Sully3]

PIA employees are fat, lazy and stuck in the 70's

Its so important to gave a staff over haul for this airline, provide the new employees with performance based contracts and see this airline take off again. These staff are so spoilt and so useless PIA needs a fresh start

 

[RazorMC]

maybe they are referring to 'great' interms of quantity of people lol

Or their physial size in general. Some of them would be unfit to even board planes lmao

Shaheen offers better trained staff imo.

PPP is main culprit im against privitisation but these firms should be run on perfomance base

Agreed on this. Poltical hiring and mismanagement from top down is to blame for the current situation

 

[ACE OF THE AIR]

PIA employees are fat, lazy and stuck in the 70's

Its so important to gave a staff over haul for this airline, provide the new employees with performance based contracts and see this airline take off again. These staff are so spoilt and so useless PIA needs a fresh start

This is a normal practice for the past 20 years...