Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), long considered as a controversial state-run organisation is seeing a gradual revamp. PIA is an airline which has been changing consumer perceptions ever since its inception in 1946 as Orient Airways.
PIA saw a significant amount of success in the twentieth century, back then it was perceived as one of the best airlines on the planet. Then came the twenty-first century when the airline saw a downturn which led to poor service, flight delays and most importantly its poor performance pushed the government to consider privatizing this organisation.
Also Read: A Look Back At PIA’s 60 Year History
Despite all the hardships, it remains as Pakistan’s largest airline with a fleet of over forty. And now it looks like that things at PIA are changing for good.
To start off, PIA has made the decision to get four Airbus A330s from ailing Sri Lankan Airlines on a wet lease so that the can operate at London’s Heathrow Airport. Since the lease is to be made without the crew, PIA’s staff is reportedly receiving training in Karachi by instructors from Sri Lanka.
What’s more, these planes are only two months old and are equipped with state of the art equipment. The announcement of these all new airplanes came in the form of a tweet made by Prime Minister’s daughter Maryam Nawaz Sharif. She complimented her tweet with interior photos of the new airplane. The tweet suggests that government is confident about a better future for PIA.
New leased PIA planes. Day not far when PIA will be at par with the world’s finest airlines IA. That’s Nawaz Sharif! pic.twitter.com/OBubZiFt1r
— Maryam Nawaz Sharif (@MaryamNSharif) July 25, 2016
Now a representative from PIA, Daniyal Gillani has said that the airline is all set to launch its premier service on 14th August i.e. Pakistan’s Independence Day this year. The premier service will begin on select international and domestic routes. He said,
“With new aircrafts, more professional crew and improved service standards, the new service aims at providing an altogether different experience to the passengers. This service will go a long way in helping PIA regain its market share both domestically as well as internationally,”
While adding,
“However, the airline is in the process of finalizing the modalities, and I will only be in a position to divulge into the details once these are finalized,”
In a nutshell, it is good to see that Pakistan Government is taking steps to reconstruct PIA. What is your take on the whole matter? Let us know by commenting below!
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Good job!
PIA will become good when all political employees are fired…
PMLN overnment achieved another milestone today. So called #PIA #PremiumService is the biggest hoax ever and here are the details.
PIA just acquired 4 (1 + 3) A330 planes from SriLankan Airline on wet lease (means Lankan crew will operate these flights). SriLankan government is getting rid of these planes after nationalizing and restructuring their airline and also due to the fact that lease agreement with AerCap was signed at very high rates, at least 20% above the market rate for these planes.
SriLankan previously committed to pay US $ 1.4 million a month for these aircraft to the AerCap. while the industry is leasing them out for amounts of US$ 900,000 to 1,000,000 a month. Today SriLankan was paying at least US$ 400,000 dollars a month extra and they had to continue this for 12 more years. However, SriLankans are at least much smarter than government of Pakistan to figure out their bad decision making and currently aiming to use PIA as dumping grounds for their expensive leases.
This is basic math and even a high school kid can crunch the numbers to extrapolate the fact that this deal is neither viable nor feasible for Pakistan’s National Carrier. It didn’t make any sense for Lankans at the first place. Yet somehow miraculously and very artistically #PMLN wrapped this garbage deal in a fancy slogan of so called premium service once again to sale it to poor and clueless awaam of Pakistan. Either they are too dumb to make such decisions or perhaps someone in PM house got a big cut to bail SriLankan out of their misery. It’s beyond ones comprehension when we can instead opt for cheaper direct leases from the international leasing companies for similar quick delivery of aircraft.
Mian Jee, Why???
Perhaps no commission there for Mr. 10%+
Its the same old wine with brand new label of ab-e-zam-zam!!!
wah ji wah nice try kia lagta hai k itna well formed article kissi user ne likha hai ? keep doing it and yes we ain’t give a shit about you because you are nothing .. you are even worse then nothing
God Bless you for such a nice comment. Please feel free to disagree with the facts I stated above. I’ll be happy to correct myself.
Don’t see who is saying.
See what he/she is saying.
Whether that is “nothing”, whether “worse then[sic] nothing”, you don’t really need to give a defecation about about him/her, because it is not what he/she is that is relevant, but what he.she says is relevant.
Article worthy tip: PIA was seen using using Toyota Avanza to move around their staff.
Toyota Avanza is an average looking 7-seater with close ties FAW Sirius 80, imported from Indonesia(?) and has not been able to gain market traction.
So you could go ahead and write an article about Toyota Avanza.
The planes are on wet lease and the crew will be Sri Lankan, based in London. These planes were pawned off to PIA by the Lankans as they can’t afford to pay their exorbitant (well over the going market-rate) monthly lease amounts. Someone govt official or the other got their palms greased for sure in this deal; i’m guessing someone in the Sharfoo family, based on Marial Nawaz’s tweets
Bhai koi zabardasti nahi hai … aap urdu ya punjabi may post kar dein agar angrezi say waqfiyat nahi hai tou.
Hitler Nawaz Sharif = Mr. 10%Plus
Mr. 10%Plus = Hitler Nawaz Sharif
well.. more expensive tickets? :p