Failed Nation Report: PIA grounds 11 aircraft; three deemed beyond repair

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RAWALPINDI: Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has grounded 11 aircraft, including three of its Boeing 777s, as the national flag carrier faces a serious financial crisis due to the uncontrolled flight of dollars and increase in prices of petroleum products.

According to sources, the airline, which operates around 30 aircraft, has been facing serious difficulties in procuring spare parts for the past three years due to scarcity of funds, which has resulted in the grounding of 11 planes.

Two of the three wide-body Boeing 777 aircraft were grounded in 2020 and one in 2021. Five A320 aircraft have also been grounded — two in 2021 and three in 2023. PIA also grounded three ATR aircraft — one each in 2020, 2022 and 2023.

A spokesman for PIA confirmed that 11 aircraft have been grounded due to a lack of funds to buy spare parts as the national flag carrier is facing serious financial challenges, including dependency on foreign currency.


The official said PIA is currently operating with the remaining 20 aircraft and the flight operations are being carried out according to the available aircraft. He said the airline will be facing a shortage of aircraft if flights are increased, especially on international routes.

PIA’s website shows its network spans across Asia, Europe and North America, covering 19 countries.

Separately, the office of the Senior Staff Association (SSA) has been closed by the PIA management “to maintain law and order situation and smooth functioning of the corporation’s activities”.

Safdar Anjum, the secretary general of SSA, termed the closure of their office illegal and an attempt to sabotage peace of the organisation.

On the other hand, the protest by People’s Unity against planned privatisation of the national flag carrier and demand for an increase in salaries of employees continued on Monday as the PIA office in Rawalpindi remained closed for two hours.

In a press release, the People’s Unity said the protest will continue till the acceptance of all their demands. In order to stop the privatisation process and make all daily-wage employees permanent, the two-hour long strike across the country will continue on Tuesday as well, it added.

Hidayatullah Khan, the central president of People’s Unity, said the protest will continue until all demands are accepted and they will expand the scope of the protest from Tuesday to all offices throughout the country.

Published in Dawn, August 22nd, 2023

30 - 11 = 19 operating aircraft

PIA total number of employees= 14,500 (underestimate)

Therefore employee to Aircraft ratio= 763 pathetic people per aircraft!

I.e. failed banana republic of Faujistan!

 

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PIA aircraft stopped in Malaysia for ‘unpaid dues’
Mohammad Asghar Published May 31, 2023 Updated 35 minutes ago



LISTEN TO ARTICLE1x1.2x1.5x
RAWALPINDI: A Boeing 777 aircraft of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) was stopped at Kuala Lumpur International Airport over a legal dispute.
The aircraft’s leasing company had approached a local court on claims that the airline owed it $4.5 million.
The claim has been disputed by the PIA, which stated that it owned the aircraft and the leasing company only owned one of the mounted engines.
PIA spokesman Abdullah Hafeez Khan added that the actual dues stood at $1.8m, which have been paid to the company.
The claim submitted by the company to seek the impounding order was ‘incorrect’ and PIA has engaged its legal team in Kuala Lumpur to contest the matter in court, the spokesperson added.
The passengers of the said flight have been accommodated on an alternative aircraft, while the disputed Boeing 777 will also operate as a normal commercial flight from Kuala Lumpur, the PIA spokesman concluded.
This is the second dispute that resulted in the seizure of a PIA aircraft in Malaysia.
In January 2021, another Boeing 777 was held back for two weeks over a case involving $14 million in unpaid dues.
Published in Dawn, May 31st, 2023

 

[ravi30]

30 - 11 = 19 operating aircraft

PIA total number of employees= 14,500 (underestimate)

Therefore employee to Aircraft ratio= 763 pathetic people per aircraft!

I.e. failed banana republic of Faujistan!

Is the above stat true?? if it is true no wonder pakistan is facing economic crisis. They need to privatize PIA.

air india with fleet of 121 aircrafts have 8400 employees!!!

 

[PakFactor]

Is the above stat true?? if it is true no wonder pakistan is facing economic crisis. They need to privatize PIA.

air india with fleet of 121 aircrafts have 8400 employees!!!

Spirit Airlines in the U.S. is a budget airline with a fleet of 197 planes and 11,000 workers, reaching 56 employees per aircraft.
PIA has 30 fleets at max capacity and 14,000 workers, coming to around 483 employees.

PIA needs to be scrapped and done. It's a failed service.

 

[VkdIndian]

30 - 11 = 19 operating aircraft

PIA total number of employees= 14,500 (underestimate)

Therefore employee to Aircraft ratio= 763 pathetic people per aircraft!

Private Airline Indigo in India has total 55000 employees for 325 aircraft.

i.e Apprx 169 employees per aircraft.

PIA has more than four times of that.

Indigo has to maintain buffer due to rapid expansion and has to have extra people already employed towards that expansion. Indigo will reach a figure of 350 aircraft by Mar 24.

 

[Jango]

Spirit Airlines in the U.S. is a budget airline with a fleet of 197 planes and 11,000 workers, reaching 56 employees per aircraft.
PIA has 30 fleets at max capacity and 14,000 workers, coming to around 483 employees.

Guess who stuffed their mureeds into the airline and made a union to protect their interests.

Heck, even the name of the union is inspired by the party.

 

[ravi30]

Private Airline Indigo in India has total 55000 employees for 325 aircraft.

i.e Apprx 169 employees per aircraft.

PIA has more than four times of that.

Indigo has to maintain buffer due to rapid expansion and has to have extra people already employed towards that expansion. Indigo will reach a figure of 350 aircraft by Mar 24.

Indigo has 26000 employees says wiki

IndiGo - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[VkdIndian]

Indigo has 26000 employees says wiki

My bad. Is it possible that wiki had old data?

I saw 55K somewhere. With 26K employees, the ratio would come down to 80 employees per aircraft.

How would they manage expansion with this number?

 

[Jango]

Since the topic of overstaffing has come up, it is important to see how our state looks at overstaffing.

They don't see it as a burden, but a necessary evil.

In the absence of a healthy private sector which can employ people, the govt generates employment through govt orgs. PIA, railway, Pakistan post, government bureaucracy itself, police, and so on and so forth. It is done to reward your supporters too, but the government also keeps a large chunk of the population employed in government entities just to keep people calm.

Imagine, if tomorrow the government goes for automation and fires around 400k people. Could you imagine the uproar? This is a deliberate strategy, not even kidding.

 

[PakFactor]

Guess who stuffed their mureeds into the airline and made a union to protect their interests.

Heck, even the name of the union is inspired by the party.

Since the topic of overstaffing has come up, it is important to see how our state looks at overstaffing.

They don't see it as a burden, but a necessary evil.

In the absence of a healthy private sector which can employ people, the govt generates employment through govt orgs. PIA, railway, Pakistan post, government bureaucracy itself, police, and so on and so forth. It is done to reward your supporters too, but the government also keeps a large chunk of the population employed in government entities just to keep people calm.

Imagine, if tomorrow the government goes for automation and fires around 400k people. Could you imagine the uproar? This is a deliberate strategy, not even kidding.

This is why it should go to the private sector, and I believe the IMF organization is pushing it this way. Eventually, heads will roll down the road, and the current political rotten lot is trying to avoid that from happening. Had there been shareholders, the executives had to answer two; they would be out of the job within one year.

It was a strategy with no long-term benefits besides keeping the vote bank intact—most of all, shame on those begharat employees for feeding haram income to their begharat aulad.

 

[Jango]

This is why it should go to the private sector, and I believe the IMF organization is pushing it this way. Eventually, heads will roll down the road, and the current political rotten lot is trying to avoid that from happening. Had there been shareholders, the executives had to answer two; they would be out of the job within one year.

It was a strategy with no long-term benefits besides keeping the vote bank intact—most of all, shame on those begharat employees for feeding haram income to their begharat aulad.

Everything we are suffering is because of a lack of strategy.

We just do whatever our overlord of the time thinks while taking a shit on his throne.

- IPP/RPP's. Absolutely zero planning for 10 years down the road, now we are all paying for it.
- Formulation of DISCOs, zero thought.
- Stuffing employees in SOE's. Zero planning.

And now for the latest gaffe, Hazrat Maulana General Asim Munir NI(M) ham sab kay abba jee, just had a bright idea of starting corporate farming.

Zero planning on how this will affect the supply chain industry, how this will affect the small farmer, how this will affect the land holdings, tax structure, everything. That will come back to bite us in the *** 10 years from now too when all those farmers become toothless.

 

[HerbertPervert]

This is why it should go to the private sector, and I believe the IMF organization is pushing it this way. Eventually, heads will roll down the road, and the current political rotten lot is trying to avoid that from happening. Had there been shareholders, the executives had to answer two; they would be out of the job within one year.

It was a strategy with no long-term benefits besides keeping the vote bank intact—most of all, shame on those begharat employees for feeding haram income to their begharat aulad.

I think talk of privatization itself is a trap. We heard the same talk during Musharraf's era. It did improve, but then came Zardari to reverse that. Asad Umar came in with talks of privatization of SOE, but to fetch top dollar, the SOE would be put under an umbrella organization and restructured to make them more appealing to investors.

However, there is no fixing some of these SOE like PIA. Any efforts to cut pensions, lay off employees get squashed by the banana courts. There are too many ghost employees. I don't think anyone would buy it either.

Since PIA cannot be fixed and it incurs debts the longer you run it, IMO best solution is to dissolve it completely. Employees cannot be reinstated, operating costs will vanish, aircraft can be sold for liquidity. You will still have debt, but you will have more in your pocket to pay off without having to operate a hemorrhaging SOE.