02 January 2004	Friday	09 Ziqa'ad 1424

LAHORE, Jan 1: President Gen Pervez Musharraf wants bilateral agreements with foreign airlines under the open-sky policy, said PIA chairman Ahmad Saeed while talking to reporters at the Lahore airport on Thursday.

Mr Saeed said the open-sky policy was allowing other foreign airlines to carry more and more passengers from Pakistan. Saying that he was personally against the open-sky policy, he added that the policy had allowed the PIA to touch only Dubai while the Emirates was taking passengers from Lahore, Islamabad and Karachi for not only Dubai but other destinations in the world. The Emirates was not ready to enter into a bilateral agreement with regard to the open-sky policy, he added.

Answering a question, Mr Saeed said the president had refused to allow the Emirates to operate flights from Pakistan to 10 destinations in the world as it would have caused the PIA some $100 million loss a year.

He said the PIA management had remained busy retiring debts and seeking funds from the government for three years and would now start reorganization. He said the PIA had not retrenched any employee during the last three years.

It had rather increased salaries and awarded bonuses. "Now the PIA feels that its top is quite heavy and will shed people at the level of general managers." He also said that the outsiders inducted in the PIA performed better than those already serving the airline.

About the resignation of Chief Operating Officer Khurshid Anwar, Mr Saeed said he had himself asked him to resign as he had developed a rift with the top management. "It was a smooth parting of ways."

He said the issue of unilateral suspension of air links had been taken up with India and it was decided in principle that such decisions would not be made unilaterally in future. He however said there was nothing in writing in this regard. "Both Pakistan and India are independent nations and no one can dictate anything to either of them."

He said the number of Indian overflights through Pakistan airspace was 10 times higher than Pakistan's overflights through India. Relatively, India had been facing a bigger loss due to the suspension of air links and use of airspace.

About the impact of new airlines in Pakistan, he said, he could not tell anything about the loss to be incurred by the PIA, but new airlines would ultimately lead to a healthy competition, which would reduce fares and benefit people. He said it was a wrong perception that PIA wanted a monopoly because it had only 48 per cent share of the Pakistan market and the remaining was taken away by four or five other airlines operating in the country.

He said the PIA had purchased eight 320-seat Boeing 777s through an Exim Bank loan, three of which would reach Pakistan by March, two in 2006 and three in 2008.

With the availability of Boeing 777s, he said passengers' complaints about long waiting lists would be minimized. He said the PIA had achieved almost 80 percent automation and was educating passengers about the new system. At present, he said, the profit earned by Boeing 747s in peak seasons was balanced in off-seasons.

He said Sri Lanka, Dhaka, Colombo and Khathmando were PIA's profitable regional destinations while Bangladesh and Colombo routes had more freight potential.