ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Aviation Khawaja Saad Rafique on Wednesday said the federal government had approved the new National Aviation Policy-2023, which would help in reviving the aviation sector through public-private partnership.
The prime minister chaired the last meeting of the federal cabinet, which approved the National Aviation Policy-2023.
Addressing a press conference, the minister said the policy would also help in promotion of domestic aviation industry, attract private investment for the management and development of new airports, increase facilities for passengers, improve consumers’ protection and encourage the aviation sector.
He was hopeful that the new policy would cover all the missing aspects and private investors would also be encouraged to invest in this sector.
The minister stressed privatisation or public-private investment was the only option to improve the standard of aviation sector in Pakistan as attracting international brands was not possible when the sector was working with limited resources. He said that capturing business of international brands was required to increase business activities at the country’s airports to raise revenue generation.
The Islamabad Airport was being outsourced through international competitive bidding for 15 years but no employee would lose job. He said that outsourcing does not mean that airports are being sold.
The government had decided to outsource Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi airports. He said the Civil Aviation Authority has issued a tender for outsourcing of Islamabad Airport while applications have been sought by November 8 and, so far, 25 applications have been received.
He pointed out that that many countries have adopted the trend of outsourcing airports for revenue generation, including India that had planned to outsource its 25 airports. “Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) is in a pathetic state despite efforts but we are laying the foundation to revive it,” he said.
The minister said PIA has inked an agreement with the New York City government to lease out the Roosevelt Hotel in the US state. The Roosevelt Hotel will be operated by the New York City local corporation for a period of three years, he added.
As per the agreement, the US firm will provide residential facilities to housing migrants in the hotel adding that the management had got an opportunity offered by the New York City government to utilise the hotel’s 1,025 rooms for migrant business.
The agreement would generate $220 million of investment for Pakistan with $18 million as clear profit. To a question on the Hazara Express incident, Saad denied terrorist activity and said negligence of Pakistan Railways officers and lack of resources were the main reasons for the incident. He added that six officers had been suspended and the matter was being investigated. Khawaja Saad Rafique, who is also the Minister for Railways, termed the Main Line-1 (ML-1) project “backbone for the railways” under CPEC. He said that a detailed business plan of Pakistan Railways Freight Transportation Company (PRFTC) has been prepared to take all possible steps to increase the revenue of RFTC.
