Pakistan International Airline (PIA) on Tuesday unveiled its five-year business plan developed with the assistance of the world’s premier aviation organization, The International Air Transport Agency (IATA) Consultancy.
IATA Consultancy to the Minister of Finance Shaukat Tarin and Federal Minister of Aviation Ghulam Sarwar Khan presented the comprehensive business plan, aimed to turn around the national flag carrier. The plan has 2022 as the base year and will go all the way to 2026.
Key points of the proposed plan
Besides Financial restructuring and reorganization, the proposed plan also calls for
- Independent decision making
- Restrictions to core business
- Reviewing destinations
- Financial discipline
- Fleet planning exercises
- Human resource (HR) rationalization cost controls, and
- Network expansion to increase PIA’s network spread and passenger uplift
Expansion Plan
The national flag bearer, which is currently operating 359 round trip flights per week, is projected to operate 581 round trip flights by 2026. Consequently, PIA’s passengers would grow from 5.2 million per year to 9.0 million per annum and revenues to $1.7 billion per year by the end of the program. The assets of PIA will also increase from the current $1.196 billion to $2.183 billion.
A PIA spokesman said PIA’s fleet is expected to grow from the current 29 aircraft to 49 by 2026, comprising:
- 16 wide body aircrafts
- 27 narrow body aircrafts, and
- Six turbo propeller aircrafts
However, the plan is subject to certain factors, including the government’s commitment to undertake the financial restructuring of PIA for the legacy debt on its balance sheets and which are beyond the serviceable capacity of the airline.
Ministry of Finance had commissioned the business plan preparation last year following the report by former SAPM on public enterprises reforms Dr. Ishrat Husain, an official statement said.
The report prepared by Dr. Husain was termed as a complete restructuring plan for the national airline with aimed to not only make PIA profitable but also to convert it into a well-performing business unit, focused on its core operations.
The International Air Transport Agency (IATA) consultancy services were hired for a detailed review of the PIA and to prepare a comprehensive business plan for the organization. IATA, after one year of deliberation, developed a five-year corporate business transformation plan.