September 1, 2002	Sunday	Jamadi-us-Saani 22,1423

LAHORE, Aug 31: The Pakistan International Airline plans to take its annual income to Rs100 billion from the present Rs45 billion during the next 10 years.

PIA Managing Director Ahmad Saeed said here on Saturday while talking to a group of businessmen that the national carrier had chalked out a comprehensive 10-year plan in this regard. During the period, three new Boeing 777 aircraft would be purchased and Fokkers would be replaced with other modern aircraft.

The MD claimed that the PIA has already come out of dire straits during the last 15 months; its Rs2.6 billion loss is converted into Rs900 million profit that, according to him, was a big achievement given the chequered past of the carrier.

The commendable part of this turn-around is that it was achieved by adjusting the present resources and taking cost-cutting measures, executing efficient revenue generation plans and re- adjustment and re-scheduling flights. To the credit of the present management, all this has been achieved without any retrenchment of the staff.

In order to facilitate the business community, the national carrier is staring early morning flights between Karachi and Lahore and Islamabad in addition to three morning, afternoon and evening Boeing-737 flights between Lahore and Islamabad that has already been introduced, he claimed.

The PIA MD further said that in order to facilitate exports, the carrier was also introducing freight flights. These flights would help increase exports of the country. He agreed that the PIA could help boost exports in a big way if planning was done by keeping this mind.