PIA going to layoff 'sizeable' employees; spokesman confirms

KARACHI: Pakistan International Airline (PIA) is working on a plan to downsize the organization. While the numbers are not known yet, it is likely that PIA will layoff sizable number of employees.

While, to fill some slots with more capable work force, new recruitments — especially for pilots, flight attendants and cabin crew — are also expected.

PIA spokesperson Danyal Gillani has confirmed the news by saying “Rightsizing is desperately needed in PIA”.

PIA spokesperson said that administration is in process of reviewing the number of employees required for the fleet, however, nothing has been decided so far.

He further said that PIA is ideally going to appoint the most well suited personnel for certain functions and position, for which, it may recruit new staff while letting go the old employees.

PIA, just for the record, has currently 14,317 full time employees for a fleet of 38 planes. This number, which is ridiculously high for an airline like PIA, is lower than the 18,368 employees PIA had in 2007-08.

Not to be mentioned, PIA doesn’t outsource any of the operations and employs in-house solution for everything including kitchen to baggage handling. While many airlines in the world outsource such operations, it is only now that PIA is considering such options to become a more viable business.

For reference, below is the HR trend for Pakistan International Airlines:

Year                         PIA Employees

2007-08                    18,368

2008-09                    18,016

2009-10                   17,645

2010-11                     17,645

2011-12                    17,410

2012-13                     16,563

2013-14                    15,700

2014-15                     14,703

2015-16                     14,317