KARACHI: President and CEO Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), Air Marshal Arshad Malik has said that the national flag carrier will soon induct four new aircraft into its fleet.
“We have already started a fleet enhancement plan and soon PIA will expand its network and increase its access the world over,” he said while speaking to PIA employees at its head office on Wednesday, 28th November.
He added that the PIA would strictly go according to its route rationalisation policy and new viable routes would also be introduced.
Referring to the recently revived Sialkot-Sharjah and Lahore-Muscat routes, he said the results were very encouraging. “Very soon we are going to launch flights on Sialkot-Barcelona and Lahore-Bangkok sectors,” he said.
The PIA administration is looking for both wide and narrow body aircraft. Narrow-body aircraft have a capacity of 150 to 250 seats with a single aisle, whereas wide-body airplanes can carry 250 passengers and beyond with multiple aisles.
PIA will see what offers it gets under the tender, said Tajwar. It is assessing the feasibility of a combination of two wide-body and two narrow-body aircraft and the final decision will be taken according to the offers, he added. PIA is going to take these aircraft on dry lease.
Urging the staff to work together as a team, the PIA Chief said he was fully aware of the problems being faced by the employees and assured them that as soon as the airline came out of the financial constraints their salaries would be revised.
He asked the employees to work for the betterment of the airline without compromising on service standards.
He vowed to maintain merit in every sphere of the airline. “Merit shall prevail in PIA with regards to promotions.”
He thanked the employees’ associations and the CBA for their support.
Meanwhile, the chief human resource officer of the national flag carrier, Asma Bajwa, has resigned.
A PIA spokesperson said that Ms Bajwa had quit the PIA due to personal reasons.
The PIA chief appreciated her contributions for the betterment of the human resources during her tenure and wished her success in future endeavours.
The airline has floated a tender, but the availability of aircraft sometimes changes according to the situation, as it depends on the schedule of lessors or companies that buy aircraft from producing companies and provide it on lease to airlines, said Tajwar.
