Ministry of Defence has not authorised Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) to sign an agreement or MoU with the Turkish Airlines, said Secretary Defence Lieutenant General (Retd) Athar Ali. At the meeting of Public Accounts Committee on Thursday, he clarified that the ministry''s approval was a prerequisite for any agreement signed by PIA, thus, the airline was not authorised to venture into any such agreement without the ministry''s consent.
Earlier in a briefing to the committee, MD PIA Ejaz Haroon informed that operating profit of the airline, which stood at Rs 2.65 billion in 2009 dropped to Rs 0.74 billion in 2010. He further said that in 2009 PIA was operating at a loss of Rs 5.8 billion but the loss has gone up to Rs 11.6 billion in 2010 due to inflation as the airline did not raise its fares with the rate of inflation. The committee directed the MD PIA to submit details of the MoU with Turkish Airline.