KARACHI, Aug 26: PIA earned an after-tax profit of Rs1.4 billion during January-June 2004 against the budgeted target of Rs1.5 billion.

The profit was posted after absorbing an excessive fuel bill of Rs1.2 billion over the planned levels during this period, the Board of Directors, which met here on Thursday to review the airline's performance for the period January-June 2004, was informed.

It was pointed out that even under these adverse conditions, the airline maintained all basic parameters and was poised to continue its push for achieving commendable growth.

The board was told that resorting to a strategy of chasing a challenging growth target, fares had been revised upward and international and domestic distribution channels were being expanded for a wider and upgraded network for improved market share.

It was stated that airline's fleet plan was being revised and would be finalized by September 2004 for induction of fuel-efficient aircraft. For the quarter April-June 2004, PIA reports an operational loss of Rs215 million against a budgeted profit of Rs73 million, after it was made to absorb a phenomenal increase in fuel cost, exceeding the budget by over Rs740 million.

The board was informed that the management would be taking cost-cutting measures in the wake of challenges facing the airline during the remaining period of the fiscal year. It was apprised of the modernization of PIA's fleet by adding nine wide-body aircraft, including three state-of-the-art Boeing 777-200ERs and six half-life A310-300s Airbus.

During the period under review, the airline successfully added 11 stations to its network. These include Mumbai, Delhi, Dhaka, Kathmandu, Colombo, Tashkent, Almaty, Fujairah, Ras Al- khaimah, Milan and Houston.

During the second quarter of 2004, the airline mounted 22 per cent higher capacity aircraft and successfully achieved a passenger traffic growth of 17 per cent, surpassing budget expectations.

For the half year, the airlines passenger traffic experienced an increase by 13.6 per cent against a capacity increase of 14.7 per cent over January-June 2003. The board was informed that while expanding its passenger network, the airline aggressively re-entered the cargo market and was now once again a major cargo carrier in the Pakistan market. -APP