ISLAMABAD – Minister for Aviation Division Muhammad Mian Soomro onWednesday informed the National Assembly that Pakistan InternationalAirlines (PIA) was in process of finalizing its Strategic Business Plan tofurther improve its performance.
Responding to a question during Question Hour he said, “the plan will besubmitted to the federalgovernment in March/April, 2019. It defines the objectives and strategiesthat are to be achieved.”
Sharing the steps taken by the government to improve the performance ofPIA, he said severalprofitable new routes like Sialkot-Sharjah, Lahore-Muscat, Islamabad-Dohaand Lahore-Bangkok-KualaLumpur have been added. “These routes are going very strong and areeconomically viable,” headded.
He said, more new routes Sialkot-Paris-Barcelona, Peshawar-Sharjah,Peshawar-Al- Ain,Multan-Sharjah and Jeddah and Madinah will commence from January andFebruary 2019.
He said that 20-year old and highly expensive software system had beenreplaced with a newone which was very cost effective, economical and more efficient. Thegovernment had terminatedabout 200 ghost employees, he added.
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He said that VIP protocols had been abolished and the employees had beendeployed on realassignments. He said that 90 percent flight punctuality had been achieved.“Delays of flights havebeen cut down significantly by better planning in engineering, flightoperation and ground handlingdepartments,” he informed.
To another question, he said currently, PIA leased fleet included 20aircraft acquired on drylease basis.
The minister further said as a result of verification, 700 degrees ofemployees were found fake and out of which, 402 employees were terminated,and 35 cases were under process for disciplinary proceedings whereas 263employees approached the court of law and sought stay orders.
