Come, fly with ailing PIA

By the time, you are reading this blog, the last Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight from Lahore to New York has taken off.

Yes, the last flight. 

After this no more direct PIA flight to New York.

Reason? 

Losses.

Why losses? 

Bad service. 

The national flag carrier has been flying low for years with no immediate successful landing in sight.

The recent development is that the Economic Coordination Committee of the cabinet is set to inject a whopping Rs13 billion bailout package to the state-owned enterprises, and most of the cheque will be consumed by loans and liabilities, which stand at Rs300 billion altogether. Besides frequent bailout packages, the airline is also allocated a large sum of money in the federal budget and every time, payments are delivered with an optimistic approach that the monetary injection would be helpful to boost the affairs of the airlines. 

Some chronic ills have been plaguing the PIA for decades, which should have been detected and cured years ago. 

It seems no political will and poor policy making are the other issues, which hinder the successful take-off of the PIA.

Years after years, the airline with 18,000 plus employee and a few dozen aeroplanes has only been adding billions to its loss sheets. In 2016, it posted a Rs45 billion net loss; in 2015 the loss stood at Rs33 billion. 

Figures are enough to prove the point that the airline has never been in the recovery process. 

This is perhaps an aeroplane, virtually held hostage by a strong 18,000 squad, which is hell-bent on crashing it.

Before the bailout package, the national flag carrier was in news for the shameful disappearance of an active aeroplane. For weeks or even months, no one was even aware of or bothered about, the missing plane, until some whistleblowers informed the opposition Senate members. When the issue was taken up in the Senate committee, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Sheikh Aftab Ahmad came up with a mind-blowing claim that former acting chief executive officer of the airline, Bernd Hildenbrand (a German national), had flown the plane home while leaving Pakistan. This speaks volume about the affairs of the airline. 

An aeroplane takes off from a Pakistani airport and no one is bothered about the procedures and protocols of flights. 

The government came up with a solution to find the missing plane: “We have formed a committee to probe the matter...” 

Now, we are told the structure of the plane is telling the tales of mess and chaos of Pakistan in a German museum. The good news, the government has offered so far is, that the engine of the plane will be brought back to Pakistan.

Once a pride of the nation for its good quality service, the PIA can be cured and put to higher skies only if the government shows seriousness to relieve taxpayers of the responsibility to bankroll the defaulting enterprises. 

First, a team of dedicated experts should be posted to the top posts. The team should be given a full autonomy to run its operations. If left to the team, hopefully, unproductive employees will be laid off. At this point, the government will have to show a strong will and resolve to stand by the management as often the PIA union resists layoffs. 

True, workers have right to earn, but the government or the PIA management can employ them in some other useful ventures. 

Once the airline has right people at the right place, things like service delivery, efficiency and innovation will be on the team’s mind and with that, a successful take off the airline will be in sight.