PIA to induct seven new planes to its fleet under new business plan

KARACHI: The federal government has decided to add seven new aircraft to the fleet of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) under the new business plan in line with the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan, ARY News reported.

Seven new planes will be inducted in the fleet of the national flag-carrier in the latest move for reviving the state-owned entity.

Sources said that two Airbus 320 planes will be included to the PIA’s fleet in October, whereas, five more aircraft will be acquired next year on dry lease which would increase the total number of planes to 37.

The fleet will be expanded to more than 45 planes within the period of four years, sources.

Moreover, the administration of PIA also decided to introduce new routes which would be made possible through the addition of new aircraft.

Read More: Govt striving hard to turn PIA into a profit-earning organization: PM Imran

The national flag-carrier finalised plan to operate two flights in a week from Sialkot to Kuwait besides gradually hiking the number of flights to Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Muscat and Doha.

Earlier in January, PM Imran Khan had directed the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) chairman to devise a comprehensive business plan to overcome losses.

Chairing a high-level meeting on reforms in PIA, the prime minister said that the government wanted to make national flag carrier a profit-generating and independent airline.

The administration of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) witnessed a record rise in revenue up to 45 per cent which benefitted the entity Rs63 billion as it started bearing fruits of its reformations and austerity drive.

Read More: PIA gets Airbus A320 operational after 13 months of grounding

Following the reformation process and austerity moves in line with the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan, the state-own entity has started moving its development and stability phase after witnessing significant growth in its revenue.

According to the ARY News representative, PIA witnessed 45 per cent rise in revenue within the last six month of the current fiscal year which generated income of Rs63 billion. The state-owned entity had managed to get Rs43 billion revenue in the six of the previous year.

The milestone was achieved by the major cut on unnecessary expenditures up to Rs3 billion which is now reduced to Rs1.70 billion by the administration of the current PIA chief executive officer Air Marshal Arshad Malik.