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Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) Chief Executive Officer Bernd Hildenbrand on Monday indicated that the national carrier is targeting to have a fleet of 60 aircraft by 2020.
Speaking at the event of Rotari Club Karachi, he said: "In addition to increasing domestic flights, the PIA is planning to increase its flights to Paris, New York, Kuala Lumpur, Jeddah, Beijing and Toronto, while starting new flights to Barcelona, Leipzig, Salalah and Bangkok."
"PIA is considering a separate dedicated unit for taking care of Hajj and Umrah operation," he added.
Hildenbrand also pointed out that this year the PIA transported around 52,000 passengers during Hajj with more than 95 per cent special Hajj flights going on or ahead of time.
The CEO of national flag carrier said, "Improvements are being made in every department to bring the national carrier in the top 100 airlines of the world."
He claimed, "PIA has attained a regularity of 99 per cent during the past few months, and its on-time performance has reached 85 per cent, which is second only to Saudi Airlines in the region."
"The PIA has recently launched a cellphone application in addition to making PIA available on Expedia and Travelocity for providing a better experience to the public," he added.
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Comments (31) Closed
Nov 01, 2016 12:13am
WOW 60 what a achievement it would be! Very funny!
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Nov 01, 2016 12:24am
Commendable effort of government but still there is much much space for improvement
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Nov 01, 2016 12:28am
Please consider Dubai as well. Current daily flight to Karachi has a very odd time i.e. 1:30 am in the morning.
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Nov 01, 2016 12:53am
Cut the staff, no free travel to families of the staff, no special favors famlieis and friends to get extra luggage on board without penalties/or payemnts for extra load, training of the crew, most importantly no delays in any flight except weather problems
The other most important feature is extra excational materiaL for passengers to treat crew with respect and keep aircraft clean. To educate them to clean after using toilets
Create a atmosphere of decipline to wait in line while boarding the plane and behave like other civil nations while travelling
{Plz bring this national airline to old glory when PIA was amongst top 10 airlines. Take back the efficiency and prifitibility from the airlines we helped create in the gulf
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Nov 01, 2016 01:33am
Hopefully this foreign boy will turn around things positively
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Nov 01, 2016 02:13am
I am happy to hear the good news that PIA will have huge number of 60 Airplanes
flying International routes soon.I have flown in the past by PIA on N.Y.- KHI route.
I would like to admit here,their service,food and the Pilots flying the Airplanes was excellent.I hope they will maintain this reputation with good administration in the
future also.
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Nov 01, 2016 02:15am
Good to hear tht should start for south africa as well becocoz over 300000 Pakistani are living In SA
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Nov 01, 2016 02:20am
Top 100, why not top 10.
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Nov 01, 2016 03:07am
Last time I flew on pia this September it was worst of all my air trips on pia. I'm not sure this CEO can fix anything on this airline if he isn't removing employees which are inefficient.
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Nov 01, 2016 03:46am
Soon PIA will become the Best airline of Asia.
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Nov 01, 2016 03:55am
God Bless Hildenbrand ...he is certainly going need it ...after all the fellow countrymen has brought it to its knees.
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Nov 01, 2016 04:04am
Out of a population of 200 million, we couldn't find a single, honest indigenous Pakistani to do this job. Shame on us!!
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Nov 01, 2016 04:17am
Recent travel experience on PIA was better than previous and at par with other carriers . Crew was professional but the travelers were not .
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Nov 01, 2016 04:32am
I do not see any reason why the PIA needs to get more planes since a large portion of the passengers are free loaders.
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Nov 01, 2016 04:33am
Out of a population of about 200 million, we could not find a single honest, competent and dedicated Pakistani to head PIA. Shame on us!!!
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Nov 01, 2016 05:23am
Good to hear that improvements are being made as they are needed. I want PIA to restart NYC to Islamabad as soon as possible, so that we are not forced to take other Airlines to go to our home city.
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Nov 01, 2016 05:57am
As long as Nawaz and Zardari are in the office thats not happening, its just a dream. And how did you end up selling PIA's hotel in NYC for only 7Mil.
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Nov 01, 2016 07:20am
we expect PIA moves on to its lost golden era. 'Great people to fly with'
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Nov 01, 2016 08:00am
Very nice plan, job well done, and thanks you Mr. Hildenbrand. This is a global economy and Airlines have to think and work globally. So, don't limit yourself. America also invites best and brightest people from all over the world to run its companies. The CEO of Pepsi Cola headquartered in USA is an Indian Woman. So is the CEO of Microsoft also an Indian.
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Nov 01, 2016 08:04am
on my return to New York from Lahore in June this year a PIA trafic guy was eager to find a mistake in the ticket issued by United Airline (in patnership with PIA), so that he could send me to a hotel instead in order to I get kick backs from the Hotel guy. I am writing this here because I want PIA CEO should know that.
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Nov 01, 2016 08:13am
Air line that was once in top 15 airlines of the world in 70s now aims to be in top 100, not very encouraging!
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Nov 01, 2016 08:50am
@R. Azhar , What is a big deal of a foreign CEO? I can quote 100s of Examples of a foreigner running big corporations throughout the World. I think it is much better to have an expert run this AirLine than a Retired Air Force Officer with no experience what so ever of running a commercial Airline.
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Nov 01, 2016 09:16am
I would like say .it is good but why we are not able to find right CEO from Pakistan as we have large number of business unis and lot of experience people . We only need someone with common sense and strong character. Anyway , good luck to PIA .
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Nov 01, 2016 11:39am
Emirates, the UAE carrier, currently has 244 aircraft. The carrier received 26 new aircraft this year: 15 Airbus 380s, 10 Boeing 777-300ERs and one Boeing 777 Freighter. Emirates has 262 planes on order valued at US$120 billion at list prices.
And ironically Emirates was set up by engineers and technicians from PIA, and also the pilots from PIA....and that time PIA ranked in top three airlines in the world. PIA engineers, technicians and pilots are still top notch...but for the politics.
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Nov 01, 2016 01:25pm
I think it is commendable on part of everyone in authority in Pakistan that they are allowing a talented person to turn around our airline. We Pakistanis have a lot of pride but we should not desist in taking help from talent wherever it might be from
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Nov 01, 2016 03:14pm
@Asif I don't understand your sarcastic remark on new CEO of PIA.If Pakistani
Airline wants the foreigners to fly on its Airplanes then it has to be of an International
Standard and this is where we desperately need foreign expertise.Doesn't Pakistan Cricket Team have a foreign Coach(boy)?
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Nov 01, 2016 06:41pm
@Zain - US. They are American Indian, not imported from India for the job as CEO
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Nov 01, 2016 07:15pm
aw... 60 aircraft in 69 years. Great Achievements!
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Nov 01, 2016 07:18pm
@zia
sharpen your knowledge again... how many CEO's are American or originally imported form India.
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Nov 01, 2016 07:34pm
Free domestic tickets for overseas Pakistanis flying home on national airline will go a long way in achieving this lofty goal. This may also bolster tourism.
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Nov 02, 2016 05:26am
60 planes means 100,000 people to service them? That's what's wrong with PIA. Privatise it and let it be someone else's headache, instead of pouring more and more into it. Even if PIA is eventually profitable, who is to say in private hands it couldn't have been even more so? Let not the citizens of this country suffer enormous losses and loans on account of this airline.
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