Professional PIA

The new management at PIA has restored administrative discipline in PIA and will most likely succeed in cleansing the airline of thousands of ghost employees. The decision to shift the administrative head office to Islamabad is a wise step, but this alone is not sufficient to achieve financial break even. Numerous foreign airlines, which once preferred Karachi as their transit hub for flights linking SE Asia and Far East to their destinations in Europe and Trans-Atlantic destinations, ceased to even operate there because it was no longer an economically and commercially viable port of landing.

PIA must embark on an aggressive marketing campaign to regain lost clientele. This will require hard work by a professionally qualified team experienced in commercial aviation, which unfortunately is lacking in the executives sent on deputation. Unlike military aviation, which works strictly on a command and control structure, commercial aviation is a highly regulated industry subject to not just the CAA but regulatory bodies of every country it flies over or lands at. Transparency in financial accounting and procurement of essential spare parts and leasing of aircraft, reducing operating cost and route structure and providing quality in-flight services, such as food, comfort, entertainment and safe reliable schedules etc are key essential factors. Professional competence and qualified workforce are key elements in all this.

Gull Zaman

Peshawar