PIA suffered Rs 76.54 billion loss till June 30: Mukhtar

[Naveed Yaseen]

ABDUL RASHEED AZAD
ISLAMABAD (November 08 2009): Defence Minister Chaudhary Ahmad Mukhtar said on Saturday that Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) had suffered Rs 76.54 billion losses till June 30. Answering a question of Chaudhry Barjees Tahir of PML-N during the question hour in National Assembly, he attributed the losses to the depreciation of rupee, high fuel prices, debt servicing on fleet loans and increase in financial cost of domestic loans.

He told the questioner that PIA had taken many steps to improve the financial institution, including fleet modernisation, marketing initiatives and route rationalisation. He said the PIA was up-grading its engineering department and they would be able to overhaul Boeing aircraft, and added that some Boeing aircraft parts were being locally manufactured.

Ahmad Mukhtar said that no new aircraft was purchased during 2008-09, while PIA inducted one new Boeing 777-300ER aircraft in its fleet as part of the project of 08 B-777 family aircraft. The minister said that three planes were grounded in March 2008 as their usage period was completed.

Ahmad Mukhtar added that since March 2008 to date, the PIA had introduced 16 new international routes, while six domestic routes had also been introduced during the same period, besides closing down of three routes. About the change of the name of Pashawar airport, Ahmad Mukhtar said the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) had no authority to change the name of Peshawar airport or other airports. However, there were plans for up-gradation and expansion of the airport, he added.

The CAA was making efforts to acquire the land which owned by army and PAF for expansion, he added. The minister said, at present, no PIA land at any location had been under encroachment. However, about 24 kanals of land had been encroached along Benazir Bhutto international airport, Islamabad, and 80 acres in Deh Safoora, district Malir, Karachi, had been encroached.

He said the CAA had issued notices to the encroacher, but due to non-co-operation of local administration/police, the CAA filed cases in the Civil Court, Rawalpindi, and after the court's decision appropriate action would be taken against the encroachers.

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