KARACHI: PIA achieved an operating profit of Rs2.84 billion for the year 2009 after four years of operating losses, which stood at Rs7.3 billion in 2008.
Addressing the 53rd AGM of PIA held at a local hotel Saturday, the Managing Director, Aijaz Haroon informed the shareholders that 2009 proved to be a challenging year for the national flag carrier as financial crisis continue to grow due to global recession.
Globally, airlines recorded dips in passenger loads, cargo loads and yields while higher inflation in the country also exerted pressure on the cost structure of the airline, he pointed out.
He said PIA’s post-tax financial losses decreased to Rs5.82 billion in 2009 from Rs36.14 billion in 2008 while revenue increased by 6.4 per cent, yield by 7per cent and the excess baggage revenue target of Rs. one billion was surpassed by Rs.45 million.
He said PIA Hajj Operation 2009-2010 was conducted with own fleet and flights were operated directly from Karachi, Islamabad, Lahore, Peshawar and Quetta. The airline started direct Hajj flights from Sialkot as well.
Haroon informed that a total of 118,000 hujjaj traveled to holy land and brought back on PIA aircrafts with a 99.5 per cent technical reliability.
MD told the shareholders that PIA successfully adopted e-ticketing and 99 per cent of PIA network has been shifted to electronic from paper ticketing. Besides, online ticketing has been introduced for major domestic flights and over 60 per cent of all international stations were enabled for web ticketing in the year 2009. Similar arrangements are under way for remaining stations.
During 2009, he stated, PIA engineering obtained certification from regulatory authorities of Qatar, Indonesia and Zimbabwe for providing engineering services to third party customers to enhance revenue.
Pointing out that travel for tourism to Pakistan remained unfavorable by the foreigners and Non-Pakistanis due to law and order situation adversely affecting international business, he said still PIA’s overall capacity and passenger traffic variations are better than many other comparable airlines.
He said the product quality of the airline, both in domestic as well as international traffic has enhanced. Two new flights to Barcelona and Frankfurt started while additional frequencies of flights to Kuala Lumpur and Kathmandu have been added from Islamabad.
He said operations were upgraded for Peshawar-Kabul and DG Khan - Dubai sectors. International flights to Abu Dhabi, Bahrain and Kuwait have also been increased from Sialkot, he added.
Haroon referred to introduction of an innovative scheme to enhance PIA’s market share and revenue on international network by entering into joint venture with Pakistan Remittance Initiative (PRI) to encourage flow of remittance through legal channels by offering free tickets to overseas Pakistanis on behalf of PRI.
Regarding contractual employees, he said Federal Government directives were fully implemented with the approval of Board of Directors for regularization of such employees who had at least six months of service and were not above fifty years of age.
Under these directives 850 employees were permanently absorbed into the airline, he informed.
Source The News
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