Last resort?: Improve services or face privatisation, minister tells PIA

[Bratva]

Yups. I know. Not just political parties, but mostly sons/daughters/relatives of PAF/Army/Bureaucrats. This all *crap* talk by PML(N) / PPP or any governing party is all pure bullshit. None of them will ever do anything about it, they just have this habbit of playing games with statements.

Let's say that they do start fixing it, who will they fire first - son of a retired Major General or that of an AVM? Pakistanis and their way of doing things, you gotta love it. It's ALWAYS 99% TOPI-DRAMA, and 1%.......... well that too is drama, of other sorts.

I just love how people become political after marriage

 

[Hyperion]

Tumhara kia matlab - kia mein aur bhee kam'eena ho gayya hoon? Kia itna zahir ho raha hai?

I just love how people become political after marriage

 

[Bratva]

Tumhara kia matlab - kia mein aur bhee kam'eena ho gayya hoon? Kia itna zahir ho raha hai?

Nai Sir,,, App apna kameena pan chupanay lag paray hain establishment ki tarha ab

 

[Hyperion]

I'll be a candidate in next elections... abhee say practice karr raha hoon.....

Nai Sir,,, App apna kameena pan chupanay lag paray hain establishment ki tarha ab

 

[Cyberian]

If it were to be privatised, who would want to buy such an heavily indebted airline?

 

[Liquidmetal]

PIA and every government run industry needs to follow the German model. Look at Germany 60 odd years ago it was a failed state, ripped apart by war and a pariah. Hard work and decent governments have made it the top economy in Europe. Lufthansa group is the biggest airline and they have a superb fleet and reputation. The German model is to involve all stake holders in the board so for PIA you will have the government, the unions, the management and a group representing the passengers.

I don't fly PIA because it is unsafe - simple - it has old jets that are badly maintained. When I fly I use one of the Arab airlines, they are excellent.

Safety safety safety should be the 1st priority!! The new standards in safety is prevention rather than learn after the accident. Quantas model needs to be followed and implemented. This model tracks each flight and records all issues. This is then fed back to the various concerned depts such as eng, flight, cabin crew etc.

The other is that we need to buy jets like the A380 with 800 seats, and modern engines means that the price per seat can be reduced and encourage more passengers. One thing I have noticed about my exp of PIA is that the people have been extremely nice to me from ticketing to cabin crew, pity the food is so poor.

 

[Bratva]

I'll be a candidate in next elections... abhee say practice karr raha hoon.....

Karzai will be proud of you

 

[Edevelop]

 

[ziaulislam]

To be honest airlines like Emirates, Qatar, Etihad, Turkish, Malaysian etc are government run. At one point, PIA was one of the best airlines in the world when Noor Khan under the government was running it.

For now the Government of Pakistan should put pressure on Ministry. If it doesn't come out to be sucessful, then they should Privatize it

but emirates qatar kuwait are monarachy ...
and yes PIA was great during era of dictators but for politicians its white horse to overstaff people to gain employments for political gains

 

[Jango]

I don't fly PIA because it is unsafe - simple - it has old jets that are badly maintained. When I fly I use one of the Arab airlines, they are excellent.

That's a big misconception. The biggest misconception rather.

PIA planes are not unsafe. Far from it. They interior may be poorly looked after, the trays might be dirty, seats might be torn, galley might be full of spills, but the plane (the flying thing) is not unsafe. The engines, wings, hydraulics etc do the job they are supposed to do.

The thought of being unsafe comes to you because when you look at the plane, you see dirt and problems with the upholstery, I reckon you've never visited PIA engg.

How many PIA incidents can you recall?

As for the model about Qantas that you mentioned, every airline uses that, not only Qantas. That is airline standard. The airplanes these days are very smart. PIA's A310's and 737's are currently old aircraft so they don't send back real time info to the PIA HQ, but the 777's do. A 777 classifies problems in three categories, one is urgent, that warning is shown to the pilot. Second category is that the warning just gets displayed but doesn't need any immediate attention. The third category is that the warning doesn't even get displayed to the pilot, it goes straight to the PIA flight management.

The problem with PIA is not safety, it is of management. The corruption, sifarish, mishandling of funds etc.

 

[Liquidmetal]

That's a big misconception. The biggest misconception rather.

PIA planes are not unsafe. Far from it. They interior may be poorly looked after, the trays might be dirty, seats might be torn, galley might be full of spills, but the plane (the flying thing) is not unsafe. The engines, wings, hydraulics etc do the job they are supposed to do.

The thought of being unsafe comes to you because when you look at the plane, you see dirt and problems with the upholstery, I reckon you've never visited PIA engg.

How many PIA incidents can you recall?

As for the model about Qantas that you mentioned, every airline uses that, not only Qantas. That is airline standard. The airplanes these days are very smart. PIA's A310's and 737's are currently old aircraft so they don't send back real time info to the PIA HQ, but the 777's do. A 777 classifies problems in three categories, one is urgent, that warning is shown to the pilot. Second category is that the warning just gets displayed but doesn't need any immediate attention. The third category is that the warning doesn't even get displayed to the pilot, it goes straight to the PIA flight management.

The problem with PIA is not safety, it is of management. The corruption, sifarish, mishandling of funds etc.

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately, I wish what you say is true. In fact it is not due to the planes being dirty or torn, I have never seen a PIA in that kind of condition and I have flown in PIA 737 (internal), 747s and 777s, none of them were dirty or had torn seats, one was a bit dirty possibly due to a quick turn around. However, there are several documented cases when PIA was denied access into Europe and Saudi for failing to meet the minimum standards for aviation safety and maintenance.

There have been incidents involiving PIA crafts, many of who reported fires in the engines and were saved by the will of God. These are not old incidents but are relatively fresh.

Furthermore, PIA is unlikely to be better than AirBlue and Bhoja - both had fatal crashes in Isl. Also a fokker PIA came down in Multan. So it is the Pakistani mind set - which is very lazy and inshallah meaning God will take care of it that has killed all our industries including PIA's safety and reputation.

The perception by the public is PIA - perhaps i'll arrive,

 

[niaz]

PIA was ‘great people to fly with’ when it was run by the likes of Nur Khan. The deterioration started with the ZAB era and it has been going downhill ever since.

Regret to say that I may like PPP for their liberal views, but their leaders don’t know how to manage anything.

 

[Leader]

Has he given some parameters of improvement simply making other airlines as benchmark is a vague statement?,

I think its other way of saying, We are going to privatize PIA because IMF said so.

 

[Edevelop]

New lifeline: Government bails PIA out yet again

ECC approved the payment of Rs7 billion to PIA, aimed at preventing the airline from defaulting on its international commitments. CREATIVE COMMONS

ISLAMABAD: Despite strong reservations over the ‘half-baked’ summary tabled by the management of Pakistan International Airlines for a multibillion-rupee lifeline, the Economic Coordination Committee of the Cabinet (ECC) approved on Friday yet another Rs7 billion bailout package for the national flag carrier.

According to officials who attended the ECC meeting, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar grilled Adviser to the Prime Minister on Aviation Capt (retd) Shujaat Azeem for bringing a poorly-crafted summary for the bailout package. They told The Express Tribune that the PIA management was unclear about whether they needed Rs16 billion or Rs24 billion in immediate relief.

But that was not all that was wrong. The airline’s management also violated the rules of business while presenting the summary before the ECC. Contrary to the requirement of circulating a summary among ministries and divisions concerned for their input before the meeting, the summary was circulated after the meeting, denying stakeholders the chance to give their opinion in writing.

Despite this, the committee approved the payment of Rs7 billion to PIA, aimed at preventing the airline from defaulting on its international commitments.

According to an official handout, PIA will use the money for payments to international vendors. The airline’s management had sought the lifeline to fulfill debt obligations and lease 10 narrow-body aircraft.

The approval of the bailout package means the finance ministry will have to issue a Rs7 billion supplementary budget, since no allocation for covering PIA’s losses was made in the federal budget for 2013-14. This will widen the federal budget deficit by the same amount, inviting scrutiny of the IMF.

Meanwhile, the ECC deferred the decision on another Rs8 billion for federal excise duty payments to the Federal Board of Revenue until the board and PIA resolve their outstanding issues. The airline had collected this tax from passengers but never deposited it with the government, according to officials. They said Dar grilled the PIA management on this issue as well and termed it a criminal act.

The officials said the committee also reviewed the possibility of privatising PIA, whose aggregate losses have crossed Rs200 billion. The airline’s management has proposed selling 26% of the shares of the entity, along with administrative control. It tried to justify the bailout as an upfront cost before PIA is privatised.

The ECC, however, did not take a decision on privatising the airline and asked the management to bring a revised, ‘well-prepared’ summary and business plan in this regard.

Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Shahid Khaqan Abbasi supported the idea of privatising PIA, said the officials. Abbasi also criticised the PIA management for the poor quality of the summary.

New lifeline: Government bails PIA out yet again – The Express Tribune

 

[FaujHistorian]

PIA is not a pain, only its maintainance department is generating good amount of money as told my my uncle who works there as an engineer

there is a hole in PIA's pot, its still making profits

you are so right.

I am with you on this.

Sometimes I think PIA maintenance department should be turned into a separate company (semi-private most likely).

This company has enough expertise to become a major service provider for all the boeing planes in the region including UAE.


While the passenger carrier part of PIA should be separated to become truly tourist friendly. This means younger cabin crew that is cheaper and good looking.

And most importantly setting the cabin food and drinks back to international standards

The way

PIA used to have BEFORE Islamo-fascism made it into a Talib@stard airline.


peace