Pakistan’s national airline will be closed?

Pakistan’s national airline ruled the world of aviation for decades, international and domestic celebrities were proud to fly with PIA, the airline that laid the foundation for the world’s leading airlines today. He provided his support to them.

Today it is being talked about and chattering that whether PIA will be closed? This is a question that has troubled Pakistani passengers and crew, whether they live in the country or abroad. Why did this news suddenly become a decoration of the media? What are their reasons? How did PIA fall? Before identifying these reasons, it is also important to mention some major achievements of the national airline.

PIA was the first international airline whose aircraft landed at Beijing Airport. PIA was also the first airline to use jet aircraft in Asia. PIA is also credited with introducing computers in Pakistan.

PIA was also the first buyer of Boeing 777-LR. The uniforms of his cabin crew were designed in Paris and the designers took pride in it.

PIA aircraft used to fly on a daily basis to around 80 major cities in all the continents of the world. At that time, PIA’s air fleet consisted of fifty aircraft. Then what was the reason that the flight operations of the high-flying airline were reduced to 25 international destinations.

Criticism is the easiest thing to do but no attempt is made to reach the root causes. Mismanagement, government disinterest or lack of priority has always been a problem for PIA, PIA has used its earnings to buy major hotels in Paris and New York which it still owns and flies the green crescent flag on. . The foundation of the hotel industry in Pakistan is also owed to PIA, PIA-owned hotels were privatized during the Zia-ul-Haq era.

Instead of expanding PIA, various governments of Pakistan allowed foreign airlines unlimited flights to Pakistan.

PIA is also operating flights to Pakistan’s North West and Makran Coast areas where there are no roads, if any they are very dilapidated, all these air operations are a total loss business. Private airlines also do not operate flights to these sectors. All these burdens are borne by PIA itself as a national responsibility.

A national airline is the identity of any country and earning revenue is not a problem for the national airline of a country that has more than one crore citizens living abroad. But the misfortune of PIA has been that instead of increasing the number of aircraft in the air fleet, it has gradually decreased.

Due to the non-availability of aircraft, air services had to be suspended for most of the countries of the world, thus the gap was filled by foreign airlines, while the foreign exchange that came to the national exchequer through PIA, was stopped or I was reduced.

For destinations where PIA has stopped flying, foreign airlines have increased their fares significantly, in fact the national airline of any country is competitive in operating fares for that country. plays an important role.

When private airlines are allowed to operate international flights, they stop domestic flights as it is not feasible and start flying on profitable international routes, but PIA as a national airline continues to maintain its domestic despite losses. The country continues its air operations.

Currently, the national airline Komali is facing difficulties. The main reason is the lack of modern aircraft in the air fleet. If the governments had taken timely decisions for the purchase of aircraft in the past, this situation would not have happened. PIA could not get government support for the purchase of new aircraft and operated from the old aircraft in the air fleet.

Maintenance costs of older aircraft are inevitably high which burdens the organization. Restrictions imposed on PIA by Europe and America during the previous regime also added to PIA’s difficulties due to which revenue acquisition was adversely affected, however, PIA management managed to find new routes through effective marketing strategies. Searched and as a result, a historical revenue of 24 billion rupees was obtained in the last month, which is a record for the airline.

Obtaining loans to keep PIA operations afloat is a huge burden on the airline. About six billion rupees per month the airline has to pay in interest but PIA has never defaulted in its payments. Most of the aircraft included in PIA’s air fleet are owned by PIA, some aircraft are also acquired on lease, the lease payments of which are being paid regularly.

(to be continued)