APROPOS the letter above (Jan 9). I approached the Karachi airport PIA counter recently to buy a ticket to Islamabad.

The person sitting at the counter was busy fiddling with his mobile. He seemed offended that a customer had infringed on his time.

After putting his phone down —reluctantly — he attended to his counter computer for a few minutes then said brusquely that the PIA online system was down and asked me to return later.

I went to the counter of a private airline counter. I was issued a ticket in less than five minutes and that too Rs2,000 cheaper.

Perhaps in the fitness of things, PIA should change its slogan (pun intended) to: “Ingrate people to fly with”. At this rate only God can save the Markhor and PIA from extinction.

Dr Serajuddaula Syed

Karachi

(2)

I travelled via Emirates to Bahrain to attend an international conference. My return itinerary required overnight travel with a three-hour stay at Dubai airport.

While in queue at Bahrain airport, I saw friends at the conference from Sri Lanka who were departing for Colombo on the same flight. I asked as to why they were going via Dubai when Sri Lankan Airways’ direct flight was departing at the same time to Colombo. Their reply: they all just loved flying Emirates for its service and did not mind taking a longer route and overnight travel as long as it was an Emirates flight.

No point in reminiscing that PIA trained Emirates’ staff when the airline was first launched.

Sadia Nazeer

Islamabad

Published in Dawn, January 13th, 2019