PIA, Palpa agree to make airline financially viable

The Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) management and Pakistan Air Line Pilots Association (Palpa) have mutually agreed to pull the national carrier out of its present morass and make it financially viable.
The Palpa has suggested several cost-cutting measures, ie have same raise in salaries which has been given to other employees; reduction in allowances; skipping stay in expensive hotels; and one engine shutdown procedure which will save the airlines millions of rupees annually and place it in a comfortable position.
Palpa also assured during a meeting held here on Monday between PIA Managing Director Captain Nadeem Yousufzai and President of Palpa, Captain Suhail Baluch of its full support during the Hajj operations, without compromising any safety rules and disruption.
PIA Managing Director also promised to share all details with employees' associations and other stakeholders regarding purchase and lease of aircraft and a recent maintenance and spare parts contract signed with a Dubai-based firm, and seek their advice. Palpa President also offered to operate flights with single set, instead of augmented crew, in Hajj operations, provided the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) gives consent to the proposal, and no safety measures are compromised.
He said that Hajj operations are the biggest operations of the airline every year where national flight operation scheduling and planning is mandatory and the pilots will go an extra mile to make the task successful and profitable to the airline. He said it is a good omen for the airline that Hajj and other flights have started taking off as per schedule, after severe disturbances in flights schedule.
PIA Managing Director also thanked Palpa President on its efforts to bring down operational cost of the airline by suggesting cost-cutting measures and hailed the decision of the pilots to have same raise in salaries which is given to other employees, keeping the financial betterment of PIA at priority.
PIA management and Palpa further agreed on the number of hours flown in a month, which should not exceed 75 hours. However, in pre- and post-Hajj operations, pilots may be scheduled for extra hours, not exceeding 34 hours weekly, and 95 hours monthly. Captain Suhail said that Palpa would try its utmost to bring back the glorious past of the airline, and the pilot community would be putting in their best foot forward in devising new techniques to reduce cost to maximum extent, without compromising on air safety rules and customer convenience.
He said that Palpa had helped the airline save a huge amount by assigning cabin crew and cockpit crew to the flights in a manner that they would not need to stay in hotels. Previously, the PIA management used to spend millions of rupees on cabin and cockpit crew hotel stay.
Only by introducing taxying with one engine shut down procedure, the airline is saving approximately Rs 2 billion in a year, as per the calculation of the airline. Palpa has withdrawn, or minimised many allowances in proposed working agreement 2011-13, which were being given to pilots as per the previous agreement, to help the airline overcome financial crisis, Captain Suhail said.
He said that Palpa has proposed half the flying allowance rate above 75 hard hours flown, instead of the double as done earlier. This would result in substantial savings. "We have also proposed to reduce the per-sector allowance of 'long range' flights, which would help save the airline millions of rupees annually," he said.
Moreover, Palpa President said: "We have proposed reduction of guaranteed flying hours from 70 to 50 hours, which is another step towards cost-cutting of millions of rupees. "Palpa strongly believes that if the management continues to have trust in its employees, the airline can be pulled out of its current crisis, and soon become a profitable institution," he added.