No foreign airline to get additional rights without justification

KARACHI: The Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has suffered due to the friendly Open Sky policy, and no foreign country or foreign airline would be granted any additional rights without proper justification, Advisor to Prime Minister on Aviation Sardar Mehtab Ahmed Khan said on Thursday.

He was addressing PIA’s two-day marketing conference 2017, where all marketing station heads from domestic and international destinations presented their stations performance, activities, and future plan of action. 

Sardar Mehtab said PIA would only succeed with the full support and joint efforts of all employees, who should take ownership of their organisation. However, there is need to eradicate favouritism and promote merit in all spheres, he said.

“PIA has to fill in the demand gap that exists in the market and has to have the capacity and right product mix,” the advisor said, and added that PIA must expand its network to cater to the demand gap that exists in the market.

“I know the competition is very tough due to an unequal playing field,” Sardar Mehtab said. He congratulated the PIA management, especially the CEO, Nayyar Hayat and acting chief commercial officer Tahir Niaz for bringing improvements in the airline.

He said the airline was moving in the right direction and would soon achieve new heights. Earlier, Nayyar Hayat in his address emphasised upon the need to adopt a new business model for the airline. He said technological advancements should be incorporated at a faster pace to make it convenient for the passengers.

“The national flag carrier is on path of turn around and very soon we will be out of the difficult phase being faced presently,” Hayat added. Tahir Niaz briefed on the performance of the marketing department.