*KARACHI: *Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has claimed that it hascome out of losses at the operational level after quite a long time as itsrevenues slightly exceeded the operating cost in the quarter ended March31, 2019.
“PIA has achieved breakeven at the operational level,” Adviser to PIA CEOAir Vice Marshal Noor Abbas told The Express Tribune. “It, however, maytake three to four years to report a net profit.”
The state-owned airline’s revenue surged to an average of Rs8-8.5 billion amonth in the January-March 2019 quarter compared to around Rs7 billion amonth in the same period of last year. “The operating cost was slightlylower than the monthly revenue or was almost equal,” he said.
The adviser said a notable improvement in financial management came afterthe seat occupancy rate per flight increased to around 90% in the periodunder review compared to less than 70% in the corresponding period ofprevious year.
Moreover, the addition of four planes to the operational fleet afterrepair, which took more than a year, reduction in the number of employees,drastic reduction in the ticket reservation cost, increased load factor ofcargo and increase in the number of flights on profit-making routes helpedachieve these results.
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“Such improvement in operations came following the change of management inNovember 2018 when Air Marshal Arshad Malik took charge as CEO of theairline,” he said. “PIA is doing well under the five-year business plan,which got approval of the cabinet very recently.”
He revealed that PIA had been saving roughly Rs1 billion a month since itacquired the new ticket reservation software from Turkey-based firm Hititin October 2018. “The new reservation software is costing half of what PIAwas paying to the US-based firm Saber.”
“The saving is playing a major role in turning around the airline,” he said.
