PIA to increase Haj fare by 20 percent

Pakistan International Airlines Corporation (PIAC) has decided to increase Haj fare by 20 percent for the upcoming season keeping in view the unprecedented increase of oil prices in the international market.
The decision was taken through a resolution, which was adopted by the PIAC Board. The board met here on Thursday with Ahmad Saeed in the chair.
He said that PIAC was all set to earn targeted profit of Rs 4.4 billion during 2004, said Ahmad Saeed as the corporation will be starting E-Ticketing throughout the world from September 2004.
"We will achieve our targeted profit for the current year," said the chairman after the meeting. The resolution was adopted keeping in view the unprecedented increase of oil prices in the international market, said Saeed while justifying the increase in fare.
He said that the corporation would soon be starting direct flights to Houston, Shinghai, Los Angles and Glasgow. By initiating these flights, the total number of PIA destinations abroad would reach to around 50 against hardly 30 international destinations of national flag career just two years back.
He said the PIAC was also considering to offer a facility to issue boarding passes 24 hours prior to the departure of the passengers for international destinations as a similar facility had been in place only for domestic passengers.
Under the E-Ticketing plan, he said, the tickets could only be bought through Internet and Passenger Name Record (PNR) could also be confirmed through the same mode while sitting in office or at home. With the introduction of the new mode the passengers can confirm their seats, he said.
He said that a complete automation system at all levels of PIAC was being adopted and the project was likely to be completed by later this year. To fetch more customers to increase the share in the market, he said, the board allowed the airline to go into partnership with Abacus according to which, number of ticket sale outlets would be increased.