KARACHI: The federal government has finally decided to wind up Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) and a newly formed airline Pakistan Airways (PA) is propelling its wings to take off. This decision is likely to be announced officially next Monday or so, the Daily Times has learnt reliably.
According to sources, Prime Minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif has convened a high level meeting in Islamabad, which was attended by his close aides.
The sources revealed that it was decided in the meeting that the PIA would seize to be the national flag carrier and replaced with Pakistan Airways adding that a few names were discussed for the chairmanship of the new official carrier Pakistan Airways and PM Nawaz Sharif had endorsed one of them. However, the name was not disclosed due to some reasons known to the government. The sources said that it was also decided that a committee comprising three of PM’s close associates would decide a final name for the chairmanship of new official carrier Pakistan Airways.
The sources further said that the meeting also decided to induct 12 new aircrafts into the fleet of the PIA on lease adding that the PIA has 40 airplanes at present out of which 28 are operational. With new arrival the airline will have 40 operational aircrafts.
The sources also revealed that new aircrafts would be provided by an airline of a Gulf country. The meeting also decided to downsize half of present PIA staff. In the first phase, those employees will be terminated from the service, whose record is not good. At present, PIA has 15,000 regular and 3,000 contract employees out of which 9,000 would be terminated. After induction of new aircrafts, flights for profitable routes including Saudi Arabia, UAE and London would be enhanced and restart flights on profitable routes, which were discontinued despite being profitable, sources added.
The meeting also decided to reschedule debts of the PIA worth of more than Rs 300 billion through negotiations with the donor agencies on easy terms. The sources said that the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has given task to his associates to search and hire experts for booking, public relations, technical and operation departments. The prime minister also discussed about colour and tail design for the aircrafts of the new airline.
Daily Times
