KARACHI, April 28: The national air carrier, PIA earned a profit of Rs1.4 billion in the first quarter of 2004 while scheduled passenger traffic recorded a growth of 16.4 per cent over the same period last year at 74.3 per cent seat utilization.
This was informed in a meeting of PIA's Board of Directors held under the chairmanship of Chairman PIA, Ahmed Saeed here on Wednesday. The Board was informed that the airline during the quarter successfully inducted 3 new Boeing 777 aircraft. The aircraft are presently being operated on North America and Europe routes.
In addition to that, three of a total of six half-life A-310 aircraft have also been inducted in the fleet. The remaining three will join the fleet in June 2004. It was pointed out that with the induction of additional capacity the airline would be expanding its international network to include the destinations of Houston, Moscow, Milan, Shanghai, Urumqi, Ras-ul-Khaima, Fujaira and Los Angeles followed by Nairobi, Damascus, Male' and Glasgow by December 2004, bringing the total international destinations to 50.
In the domestic market, the board was informed, PIA in line with the government policy of facilitating the travellers, particularly the under-developed areas, has re-started flights to Zhob and also linked Quetta with Turbat and Gwadar.
It was noted that these results have been achieved despite, absorbing higher fuel costs of Rs480 million when compared to the same period last year. It was stated that losses on Haj Operation, due to common rating of Quetta Haj fares with Karachi, had an impact of Rs60 million on revenues while withdrawal of exemption by Civil Aviation Authority on landing charges resulted in an additional cost impact of around Rs100 million.
PIA management outlined its strategy encompassing expansion and development for the year 2004 and apprised the board of the following:
* Cutover of installed Revenue Accounting System of Sabre, Effective May 1, 2004, which would bring PIA in line with the rest of the industry in its ability to capture revenue at source.
* An expression of interest has already been issued for providing ERP solution to various areas of the airline.
It was informed that the airline plans to cater to the increasing export requirement of the country by operating five dedicated freighter services to Europe. The overall impact will be of 2,000 tons additional capacity during May till September.
The Board was told that by the end of 2004, expected passenger growth would be 23 per cent in passenger traffic and 15 per cent in Cargo traffic. The Board of Directors approved the quarterly statement of accounts of the airline.
While expressing satisfaction on the Airline's performance during the quarter January-March, the board directed the airline to institute a more effective containment of its cost for which a special committee has already been constituted by the management.
It was also noted that for Haj Operation 2004-05, a request be made to Ministry of Defence for a fare increase of 15% to the Ministry of Religious Affairs without any addition of operational points in Pakistan. This was essential to cover additional costs encountered by PIA during the Haj Operations, the Board directed. -APP
