Appointment of new MD

[R.F.]

DFO will be Shuja Naqvi, call it a strong hunch.

[F.K]

i would tipp amir kamal or yusufzai as the next dfo. any news on shabbir pecuho?

[F.K]

aijaz haroon has already expressed concern over the controversial grounding of pias 747 fleet saying that the only way the airline can pull it self out of its financial crisis is if the jumbos start flying high density routes again capitilizing on load and cargo. he reffered to the high density routes being middle east as well as uk. lets see what he does to save the airline from its growing troubles. no firing, increase in salaries to boost employee morale , proper fleet deployment should be his top priorities. excess employees and fuel bill are not the cause of pias woes. go open up the balance sheet and see for your self.

[cheetah]

I beg to differ. PIA is my client and analysing balance sheets is my bread & butter. So please dont make rash statements that contradict the view of the worlds biggest bank.

aijaz haroon has already expressed concern over the controversial grounding of pias 747 fleet saying that the only way the airline can pull it self out of its financial crisis is if the jumbos start flying high density routes again capitilizing on load and cargo. he reffered to the high density routes being middle east as well as uk. lets see what he does to save the airline from its growing troubles. no firing, increase in salaries to boost employee morale , proper fleet deployment should be his top priorities. excess employees and fuel bill are not the cause of pias woes. go open up the balance sheet and see for your self.

[Moin]

Now before everyone starts speculating and rumourmongering about who might do what, when and to whom, I have here a copy of the daily news which interviewed Aijaz Haroon and was quoted as stating the following:

Officers recruited on contact basis to be shunted out.

The number of directors to be reduced considerably.

The number of heavily paid senior officers posted abroad will be reduced.

Employees salaries raised.

More a/c added to the fleet on priority basis.

E-ticketing on the intl sector.

Foreign postings strictly on merit.

Surplus officials called back from abroad.

Out of 6 grounded 747's, 4 will resume service with immediate effect and will be utilised for Hajj and Umrah special flights. (A good move which was suggested by alot of people. These a/c will NOT be used for the UK sector contrary to some opinions).

Regrets the rough use of the 777's on KSA flights. (Kind of like what I said sometime before).

The fleet would be strengthened and expanded.

He further went on to say that the officers working on contract basis were drawing Rs.20 crore as salaries including perks and privileges as compared to employees salaries which was very low and unjust. He said the BOD comprises of 15 ppl out of which 4 are doing nothing and the number of directors would be cut from 15 to 8. The low paid employees would be given a raise in their salaries and other incentives and benefits to help them make ends meet and encourage them to work harder and be more loyal to the airline. (A wise decision. A happy worker works harder I say). He then said that instead of the old policy of reducing lower staff, all such staff, if rendered surplus would be deployed on various other jobs according to their manifesto of the PPP (Whatever!). He also said that trained manpower would be exported to other countries to take advantage of the boom in world aviation and all such schemes and jobs in airlines, priority will be given to women in accordance to the wishes of BB (what contribution did BB ever make to the empowerment of women?).

So thats the crux of what he said in this interview, so lets not indulge in too much crew gossip and heresay.

[saadm80]

That Means Aircraft Engineers In Line 1 who Were Not sent to Foreign Posting And The Junior engineer who is currently on 39 as per the Sinorite list is doing his posting in new york and the senior engineers who Is on 6 and 7 are not even posted and those engineers who were posted to Toronto and were not released would also be released to join their stations in Toronto. I have proof that Station Manager and General Manager Toronto has sent e mails to director HR that please send our engineers because the handling company is charging very much but then the Director Engineering is saying that the Station is not feasible. I dont know this Director Engineering is doing only sending his own engineers but not sending those who are on the seniority list.

[F.K]

not very different from what i said. employee salaries raised, out of the 6 747S ATLEAST 4 to be brought back plus 2 combis. on the uk sector these aircraft could be used , during peak season. both marketing and operations have supported bringing back the jumbos on the same grounds.
cheetah pls tell me what is it thats bogging down the airline the most, after analyzing pias balance sheet.

[TAC777]

PIA has lost a good pilot and has got a bad MD.

[Huraiz]

cheetah pls tell me what is it thats bogging down the airline the most, after analyzing pias balance sheet.

I dont know wots cheetah gonna say but alot of people can tell u wots wrong with PIA without looking at balance sheet.
Main problem political appointments.It can be a cleric or MD of PIA.Or it can be Chairmain of PIA.
Wot sort of aviation experiance this Chairman has got except bening leader of ruling party and Minister himself.Md is a friend of Mr 10%.He may be a good pilot but good leader...i dont think so.
So these guys will bring 747's back.??for wot??just to save jobs of few emoployees.Coz if cost of fuel and extra staff is not the reason of PIA's current state then im sorry they r living in fantasy land.They will win sum votes for not getting rid of surplus staff but one thing for sure there wont be any PIA left.

[Abbas Ali]

PIA Has Capt. Aijaz Haroon As New Managing Director

KARACHI, May 7 (APP): Capt. Mohammed Aijaz Haroon Wednesday assumed the charge of Managing Director, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) replacing Aslam R. Khan.

Capt. Aijaz Haroon has over thirty years of airline experience and has vast expertise in major operational areas of the airline.

He joined PIA in 1977 as a Cadet Pilot and served the national carrier as Chief Pilot of Fokker F-27 aircraft besides having over 16000 hours of flying experience on different aircraft. He has been flying the latest Boeing 777 aircraft since 2004.

He holds ICAO Airline Transport Pilots license with Simulator/Flight Instructor Rating on all aircrafts in PIA and possess a Simulator Instructor & DCP “A” Check Captain endorsement license for Boeing 777.

He has also held Senior Management positions in PIA including General Manager Central Control, General Manager Airport Services and Director Airport Services.

He is married and has three children.

Meanwhile, the new PIA MD today went round various sections of administration offices where he met the officials and staff room to room and exchanged greetings with them.

Source: www.app.com.pk

[Amaad Lone]

Four 747s flying on limited duties will probably require between 24-28 flight engineers.

What is going to happen to the remaining 52-56??

Looks like FENA members will have some tough decisions to make.

[F.K]

the number of four aircraft are those which will be the first to reenter service. word has it that 4 743s plus two combis will be flying again. the other 1 743 will be kept for standby operation till its number of remaining hours mature. in this case pia will require about 40 flight engineers. the number of captains on the 747 is around 35. however co pilot training will have to be expedited from either 737s or 310s as newer batches are being trained, it would allow for promotions.
the myth that this decision has anything to do with salvaging fes needs to be clarified.all fes are only interested in being compensated by a golden handshake. however now that they are needed they lose out on that choice. slice off the top 30 plus who have less than 2 years of service remaining and retain the remaining 40 out of which 7-8 are still unrated from the time the ab4s were sold off. alot of fes will probably be holding executive assignments too as ground jobs might be an option. once the number of a747s has been cent percent confirmed will the strategy be made.

[Moin]

The 747's will be quite alright doing the KSA routes while the 777's do the UK routes. No need to send 4 engined gas guzzlers all the way to Europe when the 777's can do the equally well and more economically.

PIA was pretty much up shit creek even before the 747's were grounded, so blaming the airlines woes on grounding the 747's and not on the escalating cost of fuel, abuse of power and over employment is abundant proof of misinformation, speculation, surmisation and favouritism. Anyone who has even basic knowledge of aviation in Pakistan will know exactly what is killing this airline. Politics, nepotism, favouritism, mismanagement, over-employment, corruption and lastly high fuel prices. Make a note of that. It isn't rocket science. Even 5 star airlines like Qatar Airways are making losses because of rising fuel prices and is was quoted verbatim by Akbar Al Baker himself, so by saying that fuel prices have no part to play in this airlines problems is pretty absurd to say the least.

Just for the record, airlines like JAL, ANA, ANZ, AF, CX, SV and KLM have stopped sending their 747's (and by that I mean 744's) to destinations like LHR, JFK, LAX, IAD and SFO and instead are sending 777's. Now these airlines carry a hell of alot more pax than PIA ever has and probably will and are doing extremely well for themselves, yet they realised that the 777 is much more economical and feasible to operate than the 747. Even AI are now sending their 77L's into JFK. PIA's 747's are now only good enough for certain select routes like KSA not the UK.

As for the airlines balance sheet, I'm sure the auditors who went over it will have quite alot to say.

[hasan saleem]

Agree with Moin, the 747s are fit to fly only the KSA & domestic trunk routes or maybe Mumbai & Dhaka Routes. With the induction of the said 747 they will have enough 777 to facilitate the EU/US routes with their 777. Infact they should increase frequency on JFK, restart houston, colombo, singapore but with greater frequencies and with a marketing plan.

[TAILWIND]

Capt Aijaz Haroon has sworn in as MD of PIAC.
.......

Do PIA MDs are sworn in on appointment? I thought it was only wfor Govt functionaries like President, PM, governors, ministers etc????

Can anyone tell me which other airline in the world has so many Chairmains, CEOs and or MDs replaced so frequently?
And how many airlines in the world have pilots at the helm?