ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly was informed on Wednesday that the Pakistan International Airlines discontinued its Islamabad-New York flights after it could no longer afford Rs1.2 billion annual operational losses on the route.
During the question and answer session, Minister in charge of the Aviation Division Raja Mohammad Javed Ikhlas said in a written reply that flights to the US had been closed in November last year in line with the aviation industry’s practice.
He said the PIA had been rationalising its route network from time to time, closing loss-making routes and introducing additional flights on viable routes.
He informed the house that over the past five years, PIA closed eight routes — including Pakistan-US-Pakistan, Pakistan-Barcelona-Pakistan, Pakistan-Bradford-Pakistan, Pakistan-Hong Kong-Bangkok-Pakistan and Pakistan-Amsterdam-Frankfurt-Pakistan — after incurring heavy losses.
In another reply, the Aviation Division stated that PIA suffered Rs4,538bn losses till Dec 31, 2016. The 2017 accounts will be declared after their finalisation. According to the Aviation Division, some of the reasons for heavy losses were high fuel prices of over $100 per barrel in 2013-14, shortage of aircraft, navigation and other expenses and increase in salary of PIA employees.
The lawmakers disapproved the practice of offering free tickets to PIA staff after denying seats to revenue passengers and closing certain domestic routes. They also criticised the national flag carrier for selling Airbus A310 to a museum in Germany in violation of Public Procurement Regulatory Authority rules and PIA’s internal procedures.
Raja Ikhlas did not answer questions concerning accountability of PIA officials involved in sale of A310. “The German CEO, Bernd Hildenbrand, was removed after an inquiry and the Federal Investigation Agency is probing the matter to fix responsibility on other officials involved. A Senate committee has also been investigating to get to the bottom of the issue,” he said.
Published in Dawn, January 25th, 2018
