Why is PIA Losing Money Amid Air Travel Boom in Pakistan?

[Riaz Haq]

What is behind the domestic and international aviation boom in India and Pakistan? Why is Pakistan doing better than India in terms of international passenger growth while badly lagging in domestic air travel?

Passenger Aircraft at Karachi International Airport

What has happened to the global airline industry since the passage of the US Deregulation Act of 1978? Why did many big airlines of yesteryears die in spite of huge growth of air travel? How did so many upstart low-cost carriers succeed while state-owned airlines failed?

Why are the domestic air fares in Pakistan three times higher than those in India for similar distances? Why does state-owned PIA control two-thirds of Pakistan's domestic market? Why isn't there more competition on domestic routes in Pakistan?

Why are state-owned airlines, including PIA and Air India, losing a lot of money, requiring massive taxpayer subsidies and still performing poorly? Why aren't these airlines run more efficiently? Are PIA jobs used for political patronage? Why does PIA fly so many empty seats rather than cut fares to expand market?

Viewpoint From Overseas host Faraz Darvesh discusses these questions with Misbah Azam and Riaz Haq (www.riazhaq.com)

https://youtu.be/hh99nMnueBA

Related Links:

Haq's Musings

South Asia Investor Review

Pakistan Air Travel Market

Pakistan $20 Billion Tourism Industry Booming

Saving PIA, Railways and Education in Pakistan

Pakistan: Political Patronage Trumps Public Policy

Riaz Haq's Youtube Channel

PakAlumni Social Network

[Riaz Haq]

Bilal I Gilani
@bilalgilani
In one decade PIA has lost 25% of its fleet

2 / 3 rd of available seat and passengers who got on to a PIA

Yet we continue to put tax money to save this

https://twitter.com/bilalgilani/status/1535718850351837187?s=20&...

[Riaz Haq]

A new runway at Faisalabad International Airport will be completed by October this year, enabling Boeing 777 aircraft to land, said Airport Manager Muhammad Anwar Zia.


Addressing Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FCCI) here on Thursday, he added that the air cargo complex was also under construction and 75% of the work was expected to be completed before the runway becomes operational.

Zia expressed satisfaction over the available passenger load and air cargo and said that 102 domestic and international flights were successfully operating from Faisalabad airport.

Zia expressed satisfaction over the available passenger load and air cargo and said that 102 domestic and international flights were successfully operating from Faisalabad airport.

He said the old runway could only accommodate small planes, which prompted authorities to construct a new runway for wide-bodied aircraft, in view of the projected increase of passengers and air cargo from the city and its catchment areas.

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The new runway will be completed by October this year, enabling Boeing 777 to land at Faisalabad International Airport.

This was stated by airport manager Muhammad Anwar Zia at a meeting with FCCI officials on Thursday.

He said the air cargo complex was also under construction and 75 per cent of the work would be completed before the runway becomes operational.

He expressed satisfaction over the available passenger load and air cargo and said the airport was in a deficit of Rs220 million when he was posted here.

“It is now earning a profit of Rs2 billion,” he said and added that presently 102 domestic and international flights are operating from this airport facility in a month. He said that only small planes could land on the old runway, prompting authorities to construct a new runway.

He said a study was conducted to evaluate the passenger load before contacting international airlines. At that time the available passenger load was only 70,000 which jumped to 500,000 and is now expected to cross the mark of 800,000 within the next few years. He said that in a similar pattern, we must calculate the available tonnage of air cargo so that the airlines could be convinced to launch a dedicated air cargo service from this port.

He asked the FCCI to share data on air cargo so that a comprehensive study could be finalised. Four planes can be parked at a time and more facilities will also be arranged after calculating the passengers and air cargo shipments, he said.

https://www.dawn.com/news/1696356/faisalabad-airport-to-get-new-runway

[Riaz Haq]

Revving up in low gear: The paradoxes in India's transport sector

https://www.business-standard.com/article/opinion/revving-up-with-b...

No Indian airline makes money, railways' passenger traffic is stagnant, and roads have a revenue imbalance problem, but investments in all three are like never before, notes T N Ninan

India’s transport sector offers a strange mosaic of stagnant traffic trends, poor or negative returns, and yet unprecedented levels of investment for the future. After years of vast sums being ploughed into all forms of transport, the next two or three years could see the results of that investment in the form of transformational change in the air, on highways and expressways, and in the railways. Here’s hoping.

[Riaz Haq]

#IndiGo A320 Plane in #India catches #fire during takeoff from #NewDelhi, 'scary' moment captured on video.The passenger plane – which has since been grounded – was speeding along the runway when orange flames and sparks burst out of the side. https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyle/plane-india-catches-fire-duri... #FoxBusiness

A video posted to social media shows the scary moment an IndiGo aircraft's engine caught fire while attempting to take off from India's Delhi Airport.

The passenger plane – which has since been grounded – was speeding along the runway when orange flames and sparks burst out of the side.

According to AFP, passengers also heard a loud bang.

One of the passengers traveling to Bengaluru, Priyanka Kumar, posted a clip of the incident on Twitter which showed the fire going out within moments.

"Indigo 6E 2131 Scary experience on Delhi runway!" she tweeted. "This was supposed to be a take-off video but this happened."

In replies to the post on Twitter, the airline said it regretted the inconvenience caused to passengers.

"The flight experienced an engine stall during take-off roll. The take-off was aborted and the aircraft safely returned to the bay," IndiGo wrote. "We understand that all passengers are being accommodated on an alternate aircraft."


FOX Business' requests for comment from IndiGo and the Delhi Police were not immediately returned.

According to NDTV, the Deli Police said that all 184 people on the Airbus A-320 aircraft are safe and that the incident took place at around 9:45 p.m. local time.

The passengers reportedly deplaned after 11 p.m. and the aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation's preliminary report said that the pilot had used the fire extinguisher in the engine.

AFP reported that a detailed investigation would be carried out and that the alternative flight took off at 12:16 a.m. on Saturday.

[Riaz Haq]

#India’s social divisions erupt on #flights, and women bear the brunt. Commentators bemoan “the Indian passengers,” calling them the worst in the world. #urinator #TejasviSurya #AirIndiaincident #IndiGo https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/01/19/india-air-gender-ho...

It was a case that shocked India and was soon news around the world — India’s vice president for Wells Fargo allegedly peed on an elderly woman during an Air India flight from New York to New Delhi.

The incident took over India’s prime-time television, with one channel broadcasting at least 70 segments on the topic since Jan. 5 — including using graphics to re-create the scene. It dominated the front pages of India’s top Hindi- and English-language papers.

The man was branded the “infamous urinator” by the well-known anchor Barkha Dutt, and commentators bemoaned “the Indian passengers,” calling them the worst in the world. Members of parliament weighed in and prominent political players used the incident to bring up past accusations of rivals.

But the Nov. 26 Air India flight was only the latest eye-grabbing headline about air incidents over the past few months. As flight travel surges past pre-covid levels, the string of cases — often with women bearing the brunt — has touched a nerve in India as age-old gender issues emerge in the confined space of the most modern form of mass travel.

As covid-19 restrictions loosened, air rage and shocking incidents during flights became a staple of headlines worldwide, particularly in the United States. Without official aviation data on passenger misbehavior in India, however, it’s unclear whether there is a rise in cases or if the proliferation of smartphones and social media is causing more scrutiny of a long-standing problem.

Meghna Sahu, who has worked for two of India’s low-cost carriers as a flight attendant over the past three years, is relieved that the issue is finally garnering the attention it deserves. She witnesses an “unruly passenger” every working day, with major fights taking place once every three months or so.

“It has become the norm. Customers think that whatever fit they throw, I am supposed to take it because they are paying,” the 26-year-old based in Hyderabad said. “What they forget is, I am a human being.”

One of the most frustrating misconceptions for Sahu is that passengers think crew like her are primarily meant to serve them, when in fact they are trained with safety as the priority. A passenger once told Sahu: “My servant is faster than you,” leaving her in tears.

“They really test your patience sometimes. You sometimes want to give it back to them, but you realize it’s not worth it,” Sahu said. “You don’t buy me. You buy the seat. You don’t have any right to disrespect me at any point in time.”

A video that circulated in mid-December showed an intense verbal altercation between a male passenger and a female flight attendant on a domestic low-cost flight. The woman’s voice struck a chord with many: “I am not your servant,” she screamed at the passenger.

The stories have piled up: A flight from Paris to New Delhi saw a man peeing on the blanket of a female passenger as well as another person described as drunk and unruly smoking in the lavatory. A physical fight broke out between male passengers on a December flight from Bangkok to India — an air route notorious for disorderly conduct. Just last week news broke that a member of parliament from Bangalore opened the emergency exit of an airplane before takeoff, forcing all the passengers to leave the plane.

In the latest development on the Air India case, the defendant’s legal team is claiming that the woman peed on herself, adding that she’s a dancer and incontinence is a problem in her profession.

“Whatever Indian norms exist, they are playing out on flights. … It’s a microcosm of the kind of social churn we are seeing in our country,” said Shrayana Bhattacharya, who wrote the book “Desperately Seeking Shah Rukh,” which included the experiences of many flight attendants.

[Riaz Haq]

Pakistan's international passenger traffic was 11 million and domestic was 6 million in 2021-22:

https://caapakistan.com.pk/upload/AT/stats/2021%20-%202022-APT.pdf



India's was 22 million international and 166 million domestic in 2022.



https://www.statista.com/statistics/588028/passengers-boarded-by-ty...



High domestic air traffic depends on two factors: territorial size (distances) of the country and the quality of its land transportation infrastructure. Both these factors cause Indian domestic air traffic to be higher than Pakistan's

[Riaz Haq]

Pakistan plans to privatise its loss-making national carrier Pakistan International Airlines (PIAa.PSX), the government said on Monday, as the country also seeks to outsource its airport operations in line with an IMF deal.

https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/pakistan-privati...

The privatisation decision was taken at a meeting of the Cabinet Committee of Privatisation chaired by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar.

The committee "after deliberation decided to include Pakistan International Airlines Co. Ltd in the list of active privatisation projects of the ongoing privatisation programme, following an amendment in the law by the Parliament," a finance ministry statement said.

The committee also backed the hiring of a financial adviser to process the transaction of Roosevelt Hotel, New York, an asset of the PIAInvestment Limited, it added.

Pakistan hopes to resume PIA flights to Britain in the next three months after services were suspended following a fake pilot scandal.

The PIA flights to Europe and the UK have been suspended since 2020 after the European Union's Aviation Safety Agency revoked the national carrier's authorisation to fly to the bloc following the pilot licence scandal.

The privatisation of a state-owned enterprise, the PIA, which has accumulated hundreds of billions of rupee in losses and arrears, comes after Pakistan agreed to fiscal discipline plans with the International Monetary Fund.

Pakistan secured a $3 billion IMF bailout in June.

Reporting by Asif Shahzad in Islamabad and Baranjot Kaur in Bengaluru Editing by David Goodman, Mark Potter and Alistair Bell

[Riaz Haq]

Boost to tourism: First international flight lands at Skardu airport
In a touching gesture, the captain of the flight opened a window and proudly hoisted the national flag

https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/1100304-boost-to-tourism-first-int...


SKARDU: A historic moment unfolded at Skardu International Airport as flight PK 234 touched down, marking it the first-ever international flight to land on Skardu soil.

The arrival was celebrated with a heartwarming water cannon salute, painting the skies with a majestic display of water arcs.

In a touching gesture, the captain of the flight opened a window and proudly hoisted the national flag, symbolising the unity and pride of the nation. Traditional hats and thoughtful gifts were joyously distributed among the passengers aboard the inaugural flight, setting the tone for a remarkable journey.

While the initial tourist count was modest, with only 80 passengers on this milestone flight, officials from the national airline revealed that these travelers had embarked on a journey from Dubai to Skardu, making a connecting stop at Skardu. This strategic connection is expected to pave the way for an influx of tourists, injecting new life into the local tourism industry.

The residents of Skardu are excited at this as a momentous step towards boosting the region’s tourism. With Skardu being renowned for its breathtaking landscapes and rich cultural heritage, the commencement of international flights is anticipated to open doors to a world of opportunities.

The successful landing of the first international flight on the auspicious occasion of Independence Day has added an extra layer of jubilation to the festivities.