No plan to privatize PIA: Senate told

ISLAMABAD, May 02 (APP):Minister for Aviation Division Ghulam Sarwar Khan on Thursday informed the Senate that the government had no plan to privatize Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) and efforts were being made to bring improvement in it.

Responding to various supplementary questions during Question Hour, the minister said the major reasons behind increase in losses were increase in fuel prices, depreciation in Pak Rupee and leasing costs of aircraft besides high financial costs due mark ups on loans.

He said PIA present management had taken various measures to improve upon its performance and reduce the losses.

The measures included launching of viable new routes like, Sialkot-Sharjha, LahoreMuscat, Islamabad-Doha and Lahore-Bangkok-Kualalampur, Sialkot-Paris-Barcelona, Peshawar-Sharjha, Peshawar-Al-Ain and Multan¬Sharjha, increasing frequencies and capacity on profitable routes like Jeddah and Madinah especially from Faisalabad and Rationalization of fares according to market demand.

Similarly, closure of loss making routes like, New York, Salalah (Oman), Kuwait, Mumbai and replacing the twenty year old and highly expensive software system with new (HITIT) which is very cost effective and huge savings are expected, he said.

He said an effective austerity and cost saving drive initiated which included curtailment of unnecessary visits by officials both foreign and international.

Instructions issued to make use of technological assistance like video calls, conference calls etc, he said.

He said delays of flights have been cut down significantly by better planning in engineering, flight operation and ground handling departments.