Foreign banks keen to finance PIA on steady revenue

PIA initiates process to hire consultancy firm

Foreign banks are willing to help Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) improve its financials as the national carrier returned to stability track on rise in revenue, the airline's chief said.

PIA Chief Executive Officer Arshad Malik said international banks have come forward, "showing their interest in investing in the national carrier after observing the steady improvements".

Malik said the airline's losses have been brought considerably down and "will be evident from 2019 audited reports".

"Seat factor has risen to 84 percent due to which both revenue and network spread are also increasing," he said, addressing the third annual general meeting. PIA has recently inducted two aircraft in its fleet.

PIA Chief Financial Officer Khalilullah Shaikh, Secretary Muhammad Shuaib, and other officials attended the meeting to discuss 2018's financial performance.

The plan to privatise the cash-bleeding airline was shelved in the past after public protest.

The PIA chief latest statement echoed his previous claim about the airline having

KARACHI: PIA has initiated the process of hiring a reputable international consultancy firm with extensive aviation consulting experience to prepare a five-tear corporate business plan, sources said. The objective is to make PIA a leading international airline that is sustainable, profitable and plays an important role in the economy. A number of consultancy firms have shown interest in the bidding process completed last month, sources said.

An official said if non-core staff from engineering, catering and ground handling crew were separated from core employees, the ratio of workers per aircraft would decrease to 135, which would be similar to what is in India. PIA has been suffering from overstaffing and employs 13,500 regular employees, 3,500 daily wagers and the ratio of workers per aircraft stands at 450, Senate Standing Committee on Aviation was informed last month.

The management of PIA has stopped direct flights operations on loss-making routes - New York and Kuwait - and started flights on eight new routes. Currently, PIA is operating on 18 international routes including the UK, Italy, France, Spain, Norway, Denmark, Saudi Arabia, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Qatar, China, Malaysia, India, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Thailand and Canada.

turned to profitability. The claim was reprimanded by the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan and termed as tantamount to "market manipulation".

The meeting was told that PIA's accounts, which had not been finalised for the past three years, were finalised within three months and 2018 AGM's accounts were cleared and enforced. As soon as 2019 financial year ends, work will initiate to compiling the financial results, it was told.

"The shareholders appre

ciated PIA's management for their acknowledgment and support," a statement said. "They believe in transparency for responsibly taking out the pending tasks."

PIA chief informed shareholders about PIA's recent developments and current challenges.

"The biggest challenge the company was facing was that three years' audit had not been done," he said. However, he lauded the team that worked non-stop and finished the last audit in record time.