Pakistan Civil Aviation | Information & News.

[Jango]

Laxity forcing PIA to ground half of its A310 planes | The Nation

Laxity forcing PIA to ground half of its A310 planes

LAHORE – Because of poor planning of former PIA managing director, the loss-stricken national flag carrier will have to ground half of its fleet of A310 aircraft during the next year, adding to the miseries of passengers, well-placed sources revealed to The Nation on Thursday.
Sources said that the PIA was operating 12 A310 aircraft, of which two were currently grounded and their four engines were lying unserviceable for the past ten months. Technical sources claimed that six more engines of three aircraft were due to be overhauled in the next six months. The overhauling of engines would cost about Rs600 million per engine and if PIA wanted to keep its total fleet of A310 operational, it would have to get its ten engines service which would cost Rs6 billion. Sources disclosed that what to say of making engines serviceable, PIA has no cash to purchase spare parts of its other engines which costs far less amount.
Recently, Capt. Junaid Younis rejected such summary on the ground of non-availability of funds. A senior officer of PIA said that twelve Airbus A310 Aircraft constitute major volume of PIA fleet of 39. There are two different models being operated by national flag carrier. Amongst twelve aircrafts, six are powered by General Electric CF6-80C2 engines and the other six by Pratt & Whitney PW4000 engines. The airline has in-house overhaul facility for CF6-80C2 engines while PW4000 were sent to an Eagle Services Asia, Singapore under an agreement called Fleet Management Programme (FMP). PIA was operating PW4000 powered A310 aircraft under lease agreement with Airbus Leasing since 2003.
PIA management, headed by the then PIA MD Capt Nadeem Yousafzai, decided to acquire these six aircraft earlier in 2011 instead of lease maturity year 2015. The surprising reconciliation revealed that PIA management failed to claim around $35 million owed by Airbus Leasing and approved the clause in the reconciliation agreement to adjust this amount in some future deals of Airbus aircraft. It is worth mentioning here that this claimable amount was paid by PIA as maintenance reserves over the period of eight years from 2003 to 2011 with a purpose to be used for maintenance of these aircraft. Now millions of dollars being agreed to be paid for the potential purchase of aircraft is pending with Airbus Leasing. On the other side, after acquiring these aircraft the Fleet Management Programme (FMP) agreement has also come to a hasty end without keeping in mind the drastic repercussions for future operations of aircraft. Currently, one of these aircraft bearing registration AP-BGN is grounded almost for the last ten months due to non-availability of engines. PIA is now facing the music of acquiring aircraft in haste and facing acute shortage of funds to get these units back as serviceable. The temporary improvement was evident during a short stay of Rao Qamar Suleman who somehow managed to take bold decisions and reappropriation of payment schedule to different vendors involved in maintenance of PIA engines. Sensible utilisation of funds also improved the provisioning of engineering spares a bit. Unfortunately this improvement proved very short and there is a breakdown again in the supply of engineering spares, sources close to development said. PIA is running its operation without having regular Chairman, Managing Director, Chief Financial Officer, Director HR and Chief Internal Auditor, a senior officer of airlines said. When contacted PIA MD Capt Junaid Younis, his spokesman Kamran said that acquiring planes before lease maturity time was option in lease agreement. He said that two grounded A310 were on routine checking and not grounded for last ten months.


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And we have another gem from PIA. Even though the A310's are a bit old, but they still do the short routes to the GCC countries and give a little back the PIA. But i for one would be happy to see these planes go.

Can somebody explain to me the reason why PIA went for 2 different engines on their A310 fleet?

Meanwhile in other news, PIA has floated a tender for getting another component repair company.

 

[A.Rafay]

Shaheen's second a330-300 will arrive today in Karachi

 

[Jango]

It has already arrived. Check out the facebook page. There are photos of it there.

 

[SHAMK9]

Rs 9.36 billion PIA loan guarantee approved by ECC
The Economic Co-ordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet has approved issuance of guarantee for fresh loan of Rs 9.36 billion for Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) and reduced 10 to 17.5 percent tariff for different categories of components/kits used by motorcycle industry.

The meeting of ECC presided over by Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh on Tuesday decided that review would be done after one year. The rate of duty has been reduced for Completely Built Unit (CBU) and components from existing 20 percent to 10 percent and CBU and components for assembly/manufacture of vehicle in any form of kit from 65 percent to 50 percent.

The ECC on a summary moved by the Ministry of Commerce approved consensus proposal to reduce tariff on Completely-Knocked-Down (CKD) kit, which is not manufactured locally, from existing 15 percent to 5 percent and on CKD kit which are manufactured locally, from existing 47.5 percent to 30 percent.

The ECC also approved issuance of guarantee for fresh loan of Rs 9.36 billion for PIA as well as extension of government guarantee for two years on Sukuk Certificates of Rs 6.8 billion. The meeting also directed PIA to resubmit the business plan in the next meeting of the ECC.

An official said the Ministry of Defence moved a summary to the ECC requesting that PIA is facing liquidity crunch for the last several years because of high oil prices, depreciation of Pakistan rupee against the dollar and aging fleet and is unable to pay the debt. The ministry further stated that the PIA has to raise fresh loan to repay the debt for which the ECC was requested to allow fresh borrowing to the PIA. The government guarantee for PIA Rs 6.8 billion Sukuk certificates has expired and repayment of loan in six equal instalments was due from February 2012. The flag carrier was unable to repay the debt due to financial crunch and wanted extension in government guarantee for two years.

The ECC also approved equity of Rs 7.952 billion for upgradation of capacity of Wah Brass Mills (Pvt) Project from current 7000MT to 24000MT with equity ratio of 80:20. The Wah Industries would inject 20 percent equity into the project of Rs 1.59 billion or $16.7 million whereas for the remaining amount a letter of comfort or sovereign guarantee would be issued by the government.

The loan of $16 million has been approved at the rate of annual average cost of borrowing of the government for fiscal year 2012-13 repayable over the period of 7 years and issuance of letter of comfort/sovereign guarantee against loan facility to POF Wah amounting to Pak rupees equivalent to $59.4 million to be raised from any of scheduled commercial bank.

The ECC also discussed summary on "Policy Guidelines for Energy Efficiency Audit of Captive Power Plants and Natural Gas Boilers, proposing reduction in efficiency benchmark for gas engines/gas turbines, combined cycle and boilers. As the comments from Ministry of Water and Power and Ministry of Textile Industry were not presented in the summary, it was decided to reconsider the summary in next ECC meeting after receiving the formal comments from both the Ministries.

On the summary of "LPG Production and Distribution Policy 2012" Minister for Law and Justice remarked that comments by his ministry are not present in the summary. After discussing different dimensions especially arguments given by Minister for Law and Justice, ECC decided to reconsider the summary in the next meeting after having formal comments by the Law and Justice Division.

The ECC also discussed summary on import policy of used cars submitted by Ministry of Industries. Secretary Industries argued that huge import of used cars is severely damaging the domestic car industry and proposed to reduce the age of used cars from five to three years. After due deliberations, ECC constituted a committee comprising representatives from Ministry of Industries, Commerce, FBR and Production to work out further and give a detailed presentation in the next ECC meeting.

The ECC discussed in detail the allocation of gas to fertiliser plants from dedicated sources and was informed that 202 mmcfd gas would be made available to fertiliser sector from newly discovered fields and from the fields having additional gas.

The ECC was also informed that 1000 km long pipeline would be required to be established to utilise this additional gas from the fields. After considering the different aspects of the proposal, ECC gave in principle approval for establishment of 1000km long pipeline. ECC also set up a committee comprising Ministers for Information and Broadcasting, Petroleum and Natural Resources, Law and Justice, Deputy Chairman Planning Commission and Secretary Water and Power to work on determination of legal modalities, mechanism for pricing, review of agreement and estimation of cost and time. The said committee will present its report in the next ECC meeting.

 

[fatman17]

Friday, November 02, 2012

PIA plans to acquire 7 aircraft on lease


KARACHI: Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has planned to acquire aircraft on dry lease of five narrow body and two wide body aircraft. In this regard, the tender has been floated for ‘Two Stage Two Envelope’ tendering process has been adopted. Leading leasing companies in the aviation industry has participated in the tender. First stage bids were opened on October 31, 2012 in PIA head office Karachi. Bid opening meeting was also attended by representatives of union/associations of PIA, Transparency International Pakistan and Ministry of Defence as observer. staff report


ground your own aircraft and lease somebody's aircraft - reeks of corruption!

 

[Jango]

What is going on with PIA???

Sometimes they are buying some 777's, sometimes dry leasing, sometimes wet leasing, sometimes doing nothing.


This airline needs a major overhaul.

 

[SHAMK9]

What is going on with PIA???

Sometimes they are buying some 777's, sometimes dry leasing, sometimes wet leasing, sometimes doing nothing.


This airline needs a major overhaul.

PIA ordered 5 77W with 5 options in the beginning of the year, they will arrive in 2015 but PIA needs them right now so they are looking to lease 777's untill 2015 and they will be returned when the 5 77W's are delivered.

 

[SHAMK9]

Shaheen's third and last a330-300

 

[razgriz19]

a330 is great aircraft, one of my professor (AME) worked on this aircraft he said its one of the best airplane out there.

 

[Jango]

PIA ordered 5 77W with 5 options in the beginning of the year, they will arrive in 2015 but PIA needs them right now so they are looking to lease 777's untill 2015 and they will be returned when the 5 77W's are delivered.

There was a lease for 2 Wide body and 6 narrow body A/C. What happened to that? Scrapped?

 

[SHAMK9]

There was a lease for 2 Wide body and 6 narrow body A/C. What happened to that? Scrapped?

No idea because PIA keeps updating their tenders every other week, rumors are that PIA is going for the a330-200s as well.

 

[Jango]

No idea because PIA keeps updating their tenders every other week, rumors are that PIA is going for the a330-200s as well.

Lease or buy?

If it is for lease, then it depends on whether it is a dry lease or wet lease. If it is a wet lease, then it makes a little bit of sense, to replace the old A310's on some European routes, and some other places. If it is dry lease, a stupid move. You need to get a completely new maintenance infrastructure in place and other associated equipment.

As for a buy, this does not make much sense to me unless they want to get it as a replacement for A310. We already have 777 and 747 in long haul, and a new jumbos are also rumored to be coming (second hand ofcourse). And PIA is also looking at 737NG series as a replacement on short routes.

One thing is for sure, PIA sure is in a mess regarding procurement, and not giving any confidence to the sellers.

 

[razgriz19]

Laxity forcing PIA to ground half of its A310 planes | The Nation

Laxity forcing PIA to ground half of its A310 planes

LAHORE – Because of poor planning of former PIA managing director, the loss-stricken national flag carrier will have to ground half of its fleet of A310 aircraft during the next year, adding to the miseries of passengers, well-placed sources revealed to The Nation on Thursday.
Sources said that the PIA was operating 12 A310 aircraft, of which two were currently grounded and their four engines were lying unserviceable for the past ten months. Technical sources claimed that six more engines of three aircraft were due to be overhauled in the next six months. The overhauling of engines would cost about Rs600 million per engine and if PIA wanted to keep its total fleet of A310 operational, it would have to get its ten engines service which would cost Rs6 billion. Sources disclosed that what to say of making engines serviceable, PIA has no cash to purchase spare parts of its other engines which costs far less amount.
Recently, Capt. Junaid Younis rejected such summary on the ground of non-availability of funds. A senior officer of PIA said that twelve Airbus A310 Aircraft constitute major volume of PIA fleet of 39. There are two different models being operated by national flag carrier. Amongst twelve aircrafts, six are powered by General Electric CF6-80C2 engines and the other six by Pratt & Whitney PW4000 engines. The airline has in-house overhaul facility for CF6-80C2 engines while PW4000 were sent to an Eagle Services Asia, Singapore under an agreement called Fleet Management Programme (FMP). PIA was operating PW4000 powered A310 aircraft under lease agreement with Airbus Leasing since 2003.
PIA management, headed by the then PIA MD Capt Nadeem Yousafzai, decided to acquire these six aircraft earlier in 2011 instead of lease maturity year 2015. The surprising reconciliation revealed that PIA management failed to claim around $35 million owed by Airbus Leasing and approved the clause in the reconciliation agreement to adjust this amount in some future deals of Airbus aircraft. It is worth mentioning here that this claimable amount was paid by PIA as maintenance reserves over the period of eight years from 2003 to 2011 with a purpose to be used for maintenance of these aircraft. Now millions of dollars being agreed to be paid for the potential purchase of aircraft is pending with Airbus Leasing. On the other side, after acquiring these aircraft the Fleet Management Programme (FMP) agreement has also come to a hasty end without keeping in mind the drastic repercussions for future operations of aircraft. Currently, one of these aircraft bearing registration AP-BGN is grounded almost for the last ten months due to non-availability of engines. PIA is now facing the music of acquiring aircraft in haste and facing acute shortage of funds to get these units back as serviceable. The temporary improvement was evident during a short stay of Rao Qamar Suleman who somehow managed to take bold decisions and reappropriation of payment schedule to different vendors involved in maintenance of PIA engines. Sensible utilisation of funds also improved the provisioning of engineering spares a bit. Unfortunately this improvement proved very short and there is a breakdown again in the supply of engineering spares, sources close to development said. PIA is running its operation without having regular Chairman, Managing Director, Chief Financial Officer, Director HR and Chief Internal Auditor, a senior officer of airlines said. When contacted PIA MD Capt Junaid Younis, his spokesman Kamran said that acquiring planes before lease maturity time was option in lease agreement. He said that two grounded A310 were on routine checking and not grounded for last ten months.


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And we have another gem from PIA. Even though the A310's are a bit old, but they still do the short routes to the GCC countries and give a little back the PIA. But i for one would be happy to see these planes go.

Can somebody explain to me the reason why PIA went for 2 different engines on their A310 fleet?

Meanwhile in other news, PIA has floated a tender for getting another component repair company.

well the only possible reason for having two different types of engines is that, If the ADs (Airworthiness Directives) are released to the owners/operators of that engine from the manufacture, then the operators would have to ground the fleet in order to fix that problem asap. however if you have an airline that has a single type of aircraft that uses same type of engines then your simply screwed.
by having two different types of engines, you eliminate the possibility of grounding the entire fleet.

 

[SHAMK9]

Lease or buy?

If it is for lease, then it depends on whether it is a dry lease or wet lease. If it is a wet lease, then it makes a little bit of sense, to replace the old A310's on some European routes, and some other places. If it is dry lease, a stupid move. You need to get a completely new maintenance infrastructure in place and other associated equipment.

As for a buy, this does not make much sense to me unless they want to get it as a replacement for A310. We already have 777 and 747 in long haul, and a new jumbos are also rumored to be coming (second hand ofcourse). And PIA is also looking at 737NG series as a replacement on short routes.

One thing is for sure, PIA sure is in a mess regarding procurement, and not giving any confidence to the sellers.

Not sure because it's only a rumor, PIA needs to get rid of a310s and 737s, 'technical' difficulties are becoming normal for PIA.

 

[Jango]

Airblue crash: Foreign experts say CAA withheld vital information

PESHAWAR:
Investigation experts of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) completed their reinvestigation of the Airblue crash and submitted a report to the Ministry of Defence and the Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Thursday.
Airblue flight 202 crashed in the Margalla Hills on July 28, 2010 killing 146 passengers and six crew members.
During the last case hearing on October 17, the PHC asked the CAA’s senior legal adviser, Obaidur Rehman Abbasi, to share the reinvestigation report with the court when it’s completed.
The report reveals that the incident occurred after the pilot lost control of the aircraft.
It further says that the investigation report made by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), which is available on its website, is incomplete and lacks vital information.
The CAA’s initial investigation, referred to as the draft report, had more details. But after it was sent for a review on March 7, 2011, the CAA director general (DG) ordered that some information be deleted from the final report, which was made public, sources familiar with the ICAO investigation told The Express Tribune. Under CAA rule 281, the DG has the power to share information at his/her discretion.
The reinvestigation was carried out by ICAO Technical Officer Dr Andre Dekok and Standards and Procedure Officer Thormodur Thormodsson. They mentioned in their report that the draft version—not made public—was only read to them. They were not provided a copy of the draft report as it would violate CAA rules.
According to the ICAO report, the pilot was suffering from spatial disorientation. This condition occurs when a pilot is unable to correctly interpret the aircraft’s attitude (movement), altitude (height) or airspeed, in relation to the point of reference.
“The aircraft went out of the pilot’s control after it abruptly showed an altitude of 3,110ft a few seconds ahead of the incident. The final report contained 15 safety recommendations, which were not in accordance with the ICAO rules,” sources said, quoting the new report.
The sources added that according to ICAO experts, the final report wrongly mentioned that the family members of the crash victims were treated according to the ICAO guidelines.
The CAA’s report does not mention the weather conditions either, a crucial factor leading up to the crash. While the communication between the flight crew and the air traffic controllers is mentioned, no section in the final report was dedicated to communication, the experts said.
“ICAO experts also expressed concerns over the possibility of a conflict of interest since CAA investigation officials had made the report themselves,” sources said.
The Safety Investigation Board (SIB), a body which falls under the CAA, is responsible for investigating air accidents in Pakistan. Foreign experts were quoted as saying that the SIB is not an independent and impartial organisation and can not investigate in a transparent manner.
Sources requesting anonymity said that the ICAO termed the final report on CAA’s website as incomprehensive with no logical flow to explain the plane crash. It lacks factual information to support the claims, sources said. ICAO experts also said that they were denied access to crucial information regarding the flight crew.
The new report mentions that CAA’s investigation does not mention information on the status and maintenance of navigation aids, including runway lights at the time the incident occurred. The foreign experts were told that the draft report included such information.
The international investigators have recommended that the SIB should be turned into an independent entity to avoid misinformation and bureaucratic influences.
Salient points of the ICAO report
• The plane crashed after the pilot lost control
• The pilot was unable to correctly interpret the plane’s movement
• The CAA’s final report lacks vital information
• Foreign experts were denied flight crew information
• Information on maintenance of navigation aids is missing in the CAA’s report
• 15 safety recommendations were not in accordance with the ICAO’s guidelines

Airblue crash: Foreign experts say CAA withheld vital information – The Express Tribune