KARACHI – The national flag carrier has managed to recover one of itsgrounded Boeing 777 aircraft and is fast on its way to turn functionalanother of its year long grounded Airbus A320 with all chances tostreamline the Hajj operation 2019.
Chief Executive of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) Air Marshal ArshadMalik while sharing Eid greetings with the employees here on Tuesday, saidtheir hard work and sincere efforts were greatly helpful in improving theperformance of the organization.
He said Boeing 777 aircraft, abandoned for almost one and a half years, wasfully functional and would be soon joined by Airbus that remained groundedfor around a year. The latter was claimed to join the fleet during thecurrent month.
The success to turn airworthy no less two of aircraft with sizablepassenger and luggage capacity, he said was definitely a blessing that wasbeing further complimented by improvement in revenue.
Malik in this context also highlighted importance of aggressive sales andmarketing both in passenger and cargo, increased scheduled reliability(around 90%), overall seat factor (above 85%), product developmentinitiatives such as cabin refurbishment, vibrant cabin crew, improved foodquality, proactive and efficient supply chain management besides increasedsynergy between engineering and flightoperation.
The PIA chief said to increase its ancillary revenues PIA had taken aninitiative for the first time to commercialize the leg space/bulkheadseats.
“Alhamdulillah this niche met great success as we were able to earn anadditional revenue of PKR 10 million in less than a month,” he saidclaiming that the annual accumulation may soar between Rs 220-250 million.
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The PIA was further claimed to be focussing on the cargo business, whichthough usually forms a significant portion of the total revenue but wasneglected.
Expressing his gratitude to Allah almighty, Air Marshal Malik saidpositive developments were constantly emerging as the outbound load factorhas reached close to 80% that otherwise remained stagnant at 50-55% inrecent past.
He said the PIA was also in the process of acquiring new technology, fuelefficient aircraft to augment frequencies of flights and new destinations.
“It is my firm belief that we all have tremendous skills and if we keepcontributing our best, there is no doubt that the PIA will climb newheights,” said the PIA chief.
He further claimed that besides enhancement of revenues the initiativestowards cost saving without compromise on safety and quality have beenencouraging.
