MoU with Turkish Airlines: PIA management fails to convince employees' associations

PIA management's pep talk with the airline employees' associations representing pilots, flight, ground and aircraft engineers, officers and other employees on the recently concluded MoU with Turkish Airlines failed to convince them on the viability of the agreement, and was rejected outright.
The Managing Director of PIA had hurriedly called the meeting at PIA head office on Monday afternoon to convince them, but failed. The employees thought that the "briefing was based on assumptions" and the agreement, if implemented, would denude the national flag carrier of several routes in Europe and the United States, besides hurting the image of the airline, as the national flag carrier of Pakistan, PIA would lose its identity.
The management decided to take the employees' associations on board, but failed to do so. The management has, however, not given up, and another meeting has been scheduled for this week in which the Managing Director has promised to table all facts which he considered good in going ahead with Turkish Airlines.
It was first stated that PIA was entering into an agreement with Turkish Airlines for code-sharing, but the MoU show devastating facts for PIA as it plans to shut down its New York and Chicago routes including most of its European routes. PIA attracts huge ethnic traffic on the basis of direct flight and hassle free travel of transfers and security checks at foreign destinations.
PIA management had earlier denied shutting down its operations, but is now defending its position, saying that huge revenue saving and loss recovery would be made in case the agreement went through. In a related development, a PIA spokesman confirmed to an aviation website closing down of its Glasgow operation of twice weekly flight PK-777 from Lahore, terming it a loss-making sector.
PIA employees' associations say that if PIA loses Pakistanis' travelling community to the Gulf-based airlines, even after having the charm of direct flight, single security check, etc, then how would they attract this traffic through Turkish airline with one additional stopover and extra security check at Istanbul airport at least on way to Europe leave alone the hassle of changing the aircraft there.
In case PIA goes through with its agreement with Turkish Airlines it will give it nationals, travelling to Europe and US, while it will be given some traffic to Katmandu Dhaka, Mumbai and Colombo which in comparison is not even peanuts, they say.
A PIA spokesman, when contacted to find out the exact position about the MoU signed with the Turkish Airlines, said that the MoU was just a proposal, which has been sent to the government for approval. In case the government approves it, details would be worked out as to how and when it would be implemented.
"The hullabaloo raised in the press in this connection is uncalled for", he said, adding that things would start moving only after the approval of the agreement by the government. He, however, did not deny the signing of the agreement with Turkish Airlines last month.