THE relevant institutions and authorities have become silent spectators as Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), the national flag carrier, is losing its worth, credibility and worth due to the crisis triggered by fuel shortage. The phenomenon forced the airlines to cancel 43 international and 29 domestic flights on Sunday, a development that is likely to cause serious dents to the prospects of its privatization.
According to reports, the widespread flight cancellation left thousands of passengers in distress while PIA employees, who have been witnessing the airline’s crumbling into the abyss, conceded the “situation was never this bad”. What happened on Sunday seems to be a deliberate attempt to cause so much dents to the reputation of the airlines that its sales becomes a highly profitable transaction for the prospective buyers. It is also a matter of regret that the top management of PIA and PSO could not prevent the situation from aggravating further in the backdrop of payment and supply issues. PIA has been suffering huge financial losses since long and could not improve its balance sheet despite repeated packages of financial assistance by the successive governments and its own business plans aimed at improving its operations and viability. In this background, the Government was forced to make a final decision for privatization of the airlines and preparations were underway to complete the process at the earliest. However, given the current state of affairs, who will express readiness to make an attractive offer for the purpose when clumsy handling of its operations is affecting the overall image of the airlines. Sunday’s wholesale suspension of the flight operation was the second serious development after the immense damage inflicted on the PIA by the insane statement of the then Aviation Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan, who claimed more than 30 per cent of the civilian pilots in the country held “fake” licences. His irresponsible statement stirred huge controversy, prompting the European Union Air Safety Agency to suspend PIA’s authorization to operate in the bloc for six months. The PIA had a motto of ‘Great people to fly with’ but who will opt to travel with PIA after what customers witnessed on Sunday.
