Appointment of new MD

[Abbas Ali]

Aijaz Takes Over As PIA MD

KARACHI, May 7: Captain Mohammad Aijaz Haroon assumed the charge of managing director, Pakistan International Airlines, on Wednesday.

Captain Mohammad Aijaz Haroon has over 30 years of airline experience with expertise in major operational areas. He joined PIA in 1977 as a cadet pilot and has served the national carrier as chief pilot of F-27 aircraft.

Capt Haroon, who arrived in Karachi from Islamabad on Tuesday, has previously served in various management positions in the airline.

His colleagues have described him as a ‘dynamic and aggressive’ person with a significant clout among workers.

Besides his professional credentials, Capt Haroon is well known because of his friendship with PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari and Sindh Home Minister Zulfiqar Mirza. He is said to have firmly stood by Mr Zardari during his days in jail.

Source: DAWN

[GE90]

I am truly diappointed with whats going in my country and our national airline, just because the airlines burden is beared by borrowing additional money from whatsoever sources, its played like a game. PIA was like a gold cup......who ever came into power took it into his hands, taking a big chunk out of that gold and then throwıng ıt back on the ground. Now only 1% of that cup is left but still EV one is dying to get their hands on it.
Such a sorry state of affairs.

[Abbas Ali]

Message from Pakistan Air Line Pilots Association (PALPA) appearing in today's (May 8) newspaper:



On the Net: www.palpa.org.pk

[F.K]

fuel bill is not the chief reason for pias losses although it has affected its condition adversely. its not like the 777s fly on water either,the 27 percent fuel efficiency the 777 has over the 747 is offset by extra pax, cargo and foremostly loan repayment that makes up the total operating cost. i agree it makes more sense flying 777 for up to 7-8 months a year when load factor on the 747 was upto 70 percent but during peak seasons pia should use 747s and 773s. if the combis are brought back till such time pia gets its own freighters they should continue flying to the uk atleast twice a week from either karachi or isb to get in on a huge market for cargo . the airlines that you mentioned might have stopped sending their 747(all versions) to high density routes even in peak seasons, simply because the number of frequencys afforded to them are a "hell of a lot more" than pias. 777 operation to uk is more economical now that the seat factor has dropped in the last few years but during the summer season it goes up to a point where there are no bookings available for up to 8-10 weeks with 10 weekly flights. since the number of 747s isnt ascertained we wouldnt know what routes they would fly.

[hasan saleem]

747 is not the prefered equipment to fly to UK. Its in-flight service lags what it takes to fly UK. Ya maybe combi could fly between khi-lhr one/twice a week.

How long will it take the 747s to come back into action ?

[Moin]

@Tailwind: Not only that, how many airlines have not only pilots but political parties and politicians at their helm?

[Amaad Lone]

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.

Do you really see the exsisting PIA network supporting four extra 747s, let alone six if you include the combis??

The exsisting load factor is around 71% and that will crash to 60% if the jumbos are introduced without any enhancements in the marketing department.

The idea is not to just fly the 747s, but also fill them.

The 747s might replace the 777 to Saudi Arabia, but then what do you do with the 777s that were deployed on the KSA routes??

Flying them to Houston or any other new destination when the traffic is not their will only increase losses.

I think rather then taking emotional decisions, the new management needs to revamp the marketing before deploying additional capacity on any routes.

in this case pia will require about 40 flight engineers.

Dear F.K, you have each of the 747s flying 5,000 hours per year.

[F.K]

i agree with amad that to fly the 747s you must have atleast a 90 percent seat factor to make sense when choosing a jumbo over a 777 for any route. the fact remains that even on KSA routes this isnt achieved all round the year except for hajj and umra which takes up 6-7 months of the year. pia should continue to use a mixed fleet of 310s and 743s(4) for scheduled flights to the middle east. if and when the combis are brought back on the marketing depts recomendations they could do a couple of flights to the uk. 777 pilots are already flying more than 90 hours a month and with houstan,chicago and newyork frequencys opening in the next few months things are gonna get really tight. the extra capacity will be needed. at present pia has 7 servicable 747s on which it has spent 105 million USD. my guess is that 4 743s plus 2 combis will be retained for scheduled flights with one for standby operations used for umra and hajj. with these limited flights the 747 wont be flying much except during hajj and umra seasons.

[ahmad]

houston chicago have been suspended are they going to restart like F.k. mentioned

[Jacobin777]

Besides his professional credentials, Capt Haroon is well known because of his friendship with PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari and Sindh Home Minister Zulfiqar Mirza. He is said to have firmly stood by Mr Zardari during his days in jail.

Source: DAWN

Great, maybe he'll be a good MD, however as usual, its the "cheyllah" deal once again....when will this ever change?

[FMC]

Watch out for 'chelleys' of Ejaz Haroon inducted into the top brass.