ISLAMABAD – For the first time in years, Pakistan International Airlines(PIA) has reportedly overcome operational losses following a surge in itsrevenue in the third quarter of the current fiscal year which ended onMarch 31.
Adviser to PIA CEO Air Vice Marshal Noor Abbas shared the news during aninterview with a local newspaper.
“PIA has achieved breakeven at the operational level. It, however, may takethree to four years to report a net profit,” Vice Marshal Noor Abbas said.——————————
The adviser said the revenue increased to Rs. 8-8.5 billion a month duringthe third quarter (January-March) compared to Rs. 7 billion a month in thecorresponding period last year.
“The good news is that our operating cost was slightly lower than themonthly revenue or was almost equal,” he said.
He said that the seat occupancy rate per flight during the period underreview increased to around 90%. This remained less than 70% during the sameperiod in 2018.
“There are various factors which led to the financial improvement besidesthis,” he said.
We have added four planes to the fleet after a repair, reduced the numberof employees, decreased the ticket reservation cost increased the loadfactor of cargo.
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Vice Marshal Noor noted that an increase in flights on the profit-makingroutes and suspension of loss-making routes were also behind thisachievement.
The advisor credited the new management of the state-owned airline underAir Marshal Arshad Malik for the phenomenal change.
“PIA is doing well under the five-year business plan, which got an approvalof the cabinet very recently.”
The top PIA official revealed that the airline was saving as much as Rs. 1billion per month from the new ticket reservation software.
