European union banned PIA(Pakistan Airlines)

[genmirajborgza786]

i agree PIA need a compleate change in the administrative lavel their has to be an accountbility process in the over all branch of PIA + planes, serves maintanance of aircraft's , airport management and distribution of funds if we are to improve its performence it is long overdue

 

[EagleEyes]

The biggest suggestion would be to get some pretty ladies for god sake, not the fat 40 year old rude women who wouldn't come again to listen to you on what you need or what your asking for.

Some suggestions from my side would be.

- Good Staff (Polite, pretty, nice)
- Planes (Get new ones)
- Get proper equipment in the plane including the god damn head phones. In the way to Lahore from Karachi, they couldn't find a one head phone.
- Good rates.
- Good customer service.

 

[Keysersoze]

The stupid thing is that they have had a captive market when British airways decided they weren't gonna fly to Pakistan a while back. Gotta agree with the staff thing. My mum told me it's probably because they were wealthy women who thought they were have a "glamourous" career, without realising that it would involve serving others!

If you think the service is bad on the local flights, try the international ones!

 

[MIG_ACE]

Once it was the pride of the nation but its another government owned business severly hit by nepotism and incomepetant management.
Most of the management has been provided my retired PAF marshals...

Man!! The exact same case exists with Air India.It was started by one of the greatest indian industrialists J.R.D.Tata.When he used to run it AI was one of the best airlines in the world. But the socialism obsessed indian govt. nationalised it and inevitably ruined the whole thing.They are trying to make amends now by acquiring large nos. of aircraft (mostly B-777s and B-787s).But it is feared that when more and more private airlines like Jet Airways and Kingfisher start international flights AI will be eventually overshadowed.

 

[EagleEyes]

The stupid thing is that they have had a captive market when British airways decided they weren't gonna fly to Pakistan a while back. Gotta agree with the staff thing. My mum told me it's probably because they were wealthy women who thought they were have a "glamourous" career, without realising that it would involve serving others!

If you think the service is bad on the local flights, try the international ones!

For sure!

One of my cousin is a pilot, he used to work in national air lines in california. He stopped working there, cause he didn't like it and thought it was equivalant of a job that a taxi driver has, except you have to be in the air for a longer period of time, and go through all the sound that aircraft makes, plus controlling and minimum resting time made him totally exhuasted!

 

[MIG_ACE]

Well u also earn ten times the salary of a taxi driver probably more.

 

[Nasir]

PIA in crisis

When the national airline of Malaysia, MAS, posted a slight loss after years of record profit, its governing board of directors decided to cut administrative costs and sell its multi-storeyed corporate office skyscraper in Kuala Lumpur. The airline management voluntarily took a token pay cut to send a message down the line. They conserved their schedules, since these were not times for expansion, given the spiralling fuel costs. Funds saved were spent on fleet maintenance, improvement in passenger services and other core airline services.
The size of executives was drastically reduced. In order to offset the effect of fuel costs, MAS resorted to fuel hedging, a process where analysts, based on years of specialised research, buy fuel in the open market at a time when the price is low and sell it when the price is high, after retaining supplies for their own use.

PIA has just shown a deficit of over 22 billion, with losses spiralling to over nine billion in last two quarters. The extravagance with which the airline’s management spent its borrowed funds does not depict responsible corporate culture, which is their claim to fame. Corporate offices are being expensively renovated, money is being spent on painting aircraft tails or pasting stickers on them; buying new limousines; frequent foreign visits are being undertaken by senior executives including the CEO; new flights have been started only to be suspended after sustaining huge losses; expensive new long range aircrafts were procured without taking approval for operating such flights to USA; the list goes on and on.

An airline which was once the pride of Pakistan and the favourite of expatriates all over Europe, has today been placed under scrutiny. Its capacity has been drastically reduced by temporary suspension of high capacity Boeing 747s to UK by CAA Pakistan. Even the brand new ATRs were grounded for three days due to poor maintenance.

How have things deteriorated to such an extent, that the European Aviation Safety Agency intervened, while the management was caught unaware or failed to understand the gravity of inspections by EU? After all the EASA must have given repeated written warnings, which must have gone unheeded, before the warning was issued. Other than the CEO, those who serve as DMDs and SVPs belong to the airline. There is no doubt that PIA’s executive corridors are dominated by mediocrity, who must have secured promotions on political recommendations. Had even one of them spoken up, things would have been different.

The CEO of PIA must take the blame for having an incompetent bunch of advisors, who pleas him with an All’s Well Syndrome, which afflicts those in power in Pakistan. His failure reflects poorly on those who appointed him. PIA is a national asset and is more important than individual pride.

RASHID ORAKZAI

Oslo, Norway
h..ttp://www.paktribune.com/news/index.shtml?159526

 

[Neo]

Musharraf summons PIA chief over losses

ISLAMABAD, Nov 12: President Pervez Musharraf has summoned the top management of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) for a presentation on its declining financial health and to see if a restructuring plan could pull the national flag carrier out of the red.

A senior finance ministry official told Dawn on Sunday that the chairman and chief executive of the airlines, Tariq Kirmani, and his top financial aides would make a presentation to the president on Tuesday and then listen to the views of the ministries of finance and defence.

He said the PIA management would obviously try to blame the rise in fuel costs for all its losses, "but other participants may have some different opinions and that would come in the open in the presence of the president.

The president and many others in the federal government are not happy with all that is going on in PIA, he added.

Beside the losses, the president would also like to be briefed on ban imposed by the European Union on some of PIA planes on account of safety concerns and Saturday’s unusual disruption in flight reservation system during a comprehensive briefing on Tuesday.

The official said details of the financial restructuring plan for the airline could not be discussed ahead of the president’s presentation. He, however, said it would comprise a set of measures including equity injection by the government, sale of some assets, raising long-term finances like term finance certificates (TFCs) and other similar instruments on government guarantees, besides some internal steps in the company.

He said there was no budgetary allocation for the current year to bail out the national flag carrier.

Internal auditors recently raised concern about the viability of the company owing to continuous increase in its losses. They said PIA’s total losses exceeded its assets by more than Rs22 billion as of Sept 30, 2006. These conditions indicate the existence of a material uncertainty which may cast significant doubt about the corporation’s ability to continue as a going concern," said a report for the period ending June 30, 2006.

A government official said the internal auditors of the company had also drawn attention to another uncertainty about PIA’s Rs3.649 billion liability claimed by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), on account of rent, landing and housing charges and aviation charges, which the PIA management claimed to settle through negotiations, but had not made any provision in its accounts.

The airline is currently considering operational restructuring measures including disinvestment of its holding in PIA Investment Limited (PIAIL) or dispose of its property to improve cash flow.

Already, as part of the financial package an amount of Rs6.575 billion had been provided to the corporation up to June 30, 2006, against which 543 million A-class ordinary shares of Rs10 each were issued to the government. Another Rs114 million shares are expected to be issued during the current financial year.

The federal government had provided Rs8.8 billion ($150 million) as equity and guarantees to PIA for the purchase of eight new Boeing 777 aircraft out of which five had been acquired to date.

 

[melb4aust]

Watch this promotional Flight Simulator video of PIA

Link:

 

[Neo]

PIA retorts it is not barred in UK, EU

KARACHI: Subsequent to PIA’s refurbishing and deep cleaning plan, that has been going on since February this year, PIA 747-300 aircraft flew to London and back a couple of days ago, reconfirming the fact that PIA’s flights were never banned, barred or blacklisted into UK and Europe, said a PIA press release issued here on Thursday.

The UK authorities are, as before, satisfied that PIA is cognizant of the recently revised rules and standards for the aircraft, and PIA will continue to fly to Europe and UK meeting their new requirements without any problem.

PIA has always taken care of the safety, comfort and convenience of the passengers and the national flag carrier has never encountered any problems in this regard from any aviation authority or agency, the press release said.

Much before the current revised standards of the European Union were put into place, PIA’s Engineering and Maintenance Department on its own initiative had started taking necessary measures to upgrade the overall condition of its fleet. As such, a number of aircraft in PIA fleet have already undergone refurbishing the press release said.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=33041

 

[Neo]

Thursday, November 30, 2006

‘PIA to be overhauled soon’

* Suffered Rs 4.4b loss in 2005, Rs 9.2b loss in 2006
* PIA chairman confident 3 new Boeing 777s will help improve organisation

KARACHI: Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) will try to pull out of a recent tailspin with a major restructuring plan and the acquisition of new planes, the chairman of the state-run carrier told AFP.

PIA has racked up record losses over the past two years, reportedly prompting President Pervez Musharraf to summon the management and demand action to save the company.

PIA had a further shock earlier this month when it pulled part of its 747 fleet from service after European authorities complained about their condition.

“We have drawn up a business plan for the restructuring of the organisation and renewal of the existing fleet,” PIA chairman and chief executive Tariq Kirmani told AFP in an interview.

The airline, which has 40 planes and 22,000 employees, suffered a Rs 4.4 billion loss in 2005, compared with a profit of Rs 2.3 billion in 2004. For the first nine months of 2006 its losses more than doubled to hit 9.2 billion rupees.

The major loser is the government, which owns 88 percent of PIA’s shares.

“We keep calling on the president and prime minister (Shaukat Aziz) with regard to our efforts as to how PIA’s performance could be improved and we keep appraising them on what directions we are putting our efforts,” said Kirmani.

The PIA chief laid most of the blame for the carrier’s woes on high fuel prices that have affected airlines around the world.

He said there was a Rs 3.5 billion rise in operating profits for 2005 but expensive fuel accounted for 48 percent of PIA’s revenues until two months ago.

However, Kirmani predicted PIA would turn the corner soon.

“Things take time. We hope that in the next six months results will start coming and in 2007 PIA will be a neat and clean organisation and we would turn it into a profitable company,” he said.

He refused to give details of the restructuring plan but analysts said PIA must improve both its image and its planes to compete with new private airlines at home.

The fleet caused PIA problems in early November when the European Aviation Safety Agency criticised the poor condition of some of its jumbo jets, after which the airline removed them from service on European routes.

The chairman downplayed the incident, saying the “EU has not banned or blacklisted any of the aircraft”.

“The European Union has started its ramp inspection for past six months which examines appearance of the aircraft, cabin and cockpit crews, seats and the general appearance of the flight,” the chairman said.

He said that after one of these inspections PIA voluntarily refurbished its 747s and two had already returned to the air.

The airline is also battling punctuality problems, having grounded its seven-strong fleet of ageing Fokker F27 turboprops after one crashed in July, killing all 45 people on board.

But the PIA chief said the upcoming introduction of nine new aircraft – three Boeing 777 jets and six ATR 42 turboprops – made him “very much confident of improving our operation in the next six months”.

The European-made ATR 42-500s will replace the Fokkers at a cost of 100 million dollars. The 777s are part of PIA’s biggest ever purchase of eight aircraft from Seattle-based Boeing in a 2002 deal worth $ 1.6 billion.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006\11\30\story_30-11-2006_pg7_9

 

[Neo]

Saturday, December 02, 2006

PIA reserves dip by Rs 777m against target

ISLAMABAD: The net cash and bank balances of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) have reduced by Rs 777 million against the target, mainly due to an operational loss of Rs 2.556 billion against a positive target of Rs 1.579 billion.

To meet the cash deficit due do the operational losses, medium/short term borrowings amounting to Rs 3, 650 million were arranged during the third quarter July-September period, according to the financial improvement plan implementation report of the Ministry of Finance.

The Pakistan International Airlines expenses rose to Rs 9.045 billion as against the target of Rs 6.511 billion due to the fuel cost, which recorded an increase of 39 percent during the third quarter July-September period.

The Pakistan International Airlines actual revenue of Rs 18, 263 million achieved in the 3rd quarter Jul-Sep 2006 is short by Rs 624 million against target of Rs 18, 905 million. Major decrease of Rs 1, 010 million is in passenger revenue whereas cargo revenue and non-transport revenue have increased by Rs 60 million and Rs 308 million respectively. The decrease in passenger revenue is because of lower traffic due to competition from regional and local airlines. The fuel expense rose to Rs 9.045 billion as against the target of Rs 6.511 billion. The fuel cost recorded an increase of 39 percent over target (33.9 percent due increase in price and 3.9 percent due increase in quantity). The increase in flight equipment rental expense is due to wet leasing of increase freighter aircraft.

The finance cost is showing an increase owing to additional borrowing including the bridge loan for purchase of 49 percent shares of PIA-IL and requirement of additional working capital. A further rise in interest rates has also caused increase in interest expenses.

An increase in other indirect cost is due to extra ordinary provision, against stores obsolescence (Rs 100 million) as per policy, provision against construction of the University Road Karachi by CDGK (Rs 75 million) and exchange loss net (Rs 98 million) due currency fluctuations and increase in selling and distribution expenses (Rs 124 million).

Pak-Steel Mills Cor-poration (PSMC): The PSMC had set a target of 76 percent for the capacity utilisation of steel production for the 1st quarter July-September, 2006-07. The PSMC has achieved the same level during the quarter under-reference. Last year, the Pakistan Steel Mills had faced serious operational problems, for want of under-taking capital repair of its coke oven batteries. The previous year, the capacity utilisation fell down and remained between 34 to 63 percent during the first 9 months. The PSMC had undertaken and completed the repair work during the 4th quarter, by the end of June 2006. Consequently, the capacity utilisation for the production of steel has started increasing. A target of Rs 6033 million was set for sales and other income during the 1st quarter FY 2006-07 under-reference, and the PSMC achieved the same level; without having any variation, in this regard.

The Pakistan Steel Mills earned net profit of Rs 140 million. The same was set as it’s target for the 1st quarter FY 2006-07.

Cash flow position: The PSMC was carrying surplus cash of Rs 10921 million, at the beginning of the 1st quarter, which was reduced to Rs 10286 million at the end of the quarter. The major cost incurred on the procurement of raw material. However, this amount was projected for the quarter; under-reference, and the PSMC remained at the same level at the end of the quarter.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006\12\02\story_2-12-2006_pg5_2

 

[Neo]

Saturday, December 02, 2006

PIA, AEGNS sign deal to develop cards

Karachi: The Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) and American Express Global Network Services (AEGNS) on Friday signed a partnership agreement to develop a series of Airline co-branded card products for their customers in Pakistan, says a statement of the airline.

These cards, targeted at, and customized for different market segments, will offer customers access to PIA’s Awards +Plus loyalty program, allowing card members to earn PIA Awards +Plus miles on every purchase.

In addition, the card members will enjoy a range of travel-related benefits, including access to PIA business class lounges, excess baggage allowance and other special promotions developed exclusively for card members.

 

[Neo]

Saturday, February 24, 2007

Europe to ban most PIA planes

By Sarfaraz Ahmed

KARACHI: A senior official at the Pakistan High Commission in London told the Pakistan International Airlines headquarters in Karachi that the European Union would bar all PIA aircraft, except for Boeing 777s, from flying to 27 European countries after March 8 because of safety concerns.

“We have been told that except for the PIA fleet’s seven Boeing 777s, all other planes will not be allowed to operate in the EU bloc after March 8,” PIA sources told Daily Times while terming the EU’s reported move as “shocking and confusing”.

The sources said that a seven-member Pakistani team of PIA and Civil Aviation officials had just returned from Brussels, where they made a “successful” presentation to the EU’s Air Safety Commission on February 22. They said that in addition to this, last week, a three-member European Air-Safety Committee expressed satisfaction with the measrues taken by the airline to improve safety. “The team carried out an audit of our facilities and found that everything was in order.” Asked whether the airline would subject its aircraft to the Saftey Assessment of Foreign Aircraft Programme, they said the EU decision had created a lot of confusion, therefore nothing could be said.

“It was hardly three months ago that they cleared all aircraft for operations in the bloc,” they added. A foreign news agency earlier reported that a committee had decided to block all but seven planes of the airline’s fleet from flying to Europe for failing to meet safety standards. PIA Chairman and CEO Tariq Kirmani could not be reached for comment.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007\02\24\story_24-2-2007_pg1_4

 

[Adux]

The biggest suggestion would be to get some pretty ladies for god sake, not the fat 40 year old rude women who wouldn't come again to listen to you on what you need or what your asking for.

Some suggestions from my side would be.

- Good Staff (Polite, pretty, nice)
- Planes (Get new ones)
- Get proper equipment in the plane including the god damn head phones. In the way to Lahore from Karachi, they couldn't find a one head phone.
- Good rates.
- Good customer service.

hEY are you talking about Air India, cuz it sounds the same....esp with grumpy old ladies with goodyear tyre's for tummy....lol