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Editorial overview “The
standards of PIA have improved” fleet Not
at your service
Towards
solutions
Editorial Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) is in the news for all the wrong reasons. The much talked about deterioration in the safety and service standards of the airline is once again a subject of attention. The efforts, if any, to correct the wrongs that plague the airline have not borne fruit. Understandably, the state of the airline has come to such pass due to overstaffing, incompetence, oversight and outright corruption. PIA is running into huge losses for quite some time now. Alarm bells are ringing
loud and clear for the airline if the news about the passengers turning to
other airlines and its marke Talk to a number of passengers who have travelled recently and in the past and they do not have very pleasant memories to share about their time immediately before or during the flight. Whether the PIA is conscious of the visible cracks in its structure or has buried its head in the sand is a critical question. If President Asif Zardari’s meeting about the need of wide-ranging reforms in the PIA is any indicator, it is clear that the ship of the airline is in dire straits and has to be rescued following the principles of transparency and fairness. The sooner it happens the better.
overview The national flag carrier Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has recently been in the news for all the wrong reasons. Over the last couple of weeks, several aircraft made emergency landings after developing technical faults mid-air, 10 planes out of a fleet of 39 were grounded due to technical faults and for repairs, a large number of flights cancelled and rescheduled for announced and unannounced reasons, more than one aircraft damaged due to bird-hits, countless passengers stranded at local and international airports in pitiable conditions, media reports hinting at a likely ban on the airline’s A310 fleet’s entry into the European Union (EU) and so on. While the PIA management may try to trivialise the matter by terming these things a routine, the passengers are thinking otherwise. It’s a fact that many regular passengers are thinking about not to fly PIA anymore and opting for other available modes to travel to their destinations. The regularity with which the PIA aircrafts are experiencing technical faults has made them think that a more serious incident may lie in store for them if they board these ageing machines. Passengers travelling on ATR planes are the most worried as around 35 of the total cancelled flights involved this very aircraft. Besides, the fact that the flight PK-369 from Islamabad to Karachi had to be landed at Multan airport because it was flying with a faulty generator and without a back-up engine hints at something else. It was the callousness of the staff, more than the fault of the aircraft, that put lives of the aircraft in danger. Clearing the plane for flight was nothing less than a blunder. Anyhow, the public
outburst and the media tirade against the sorry state of affairs at PIA have
led its top management to accept some hard facts and come out of its state
of denial. For example, it has admitted that the airline needs to increase
the size of its fleet, go for modern and fuel-efficient aircraft, start
rightsizing, buy spare parts without delay and purge it of mismanagement,
corruption and political patronisation. In this context, the causes that brought the national flag carrier to this point need to be highlighted. The foremost cause is that the airline has enjoyed perfect monopoly in domestic flight operations since its inception and given little option to passengers to fly other airlines for international level. The absence of competition turned the airline into a major state employer resulting in employment of thousands of personnel on political basis. Besides, a large number of PIA officials are getting hefty salaries which would never have been possible for a professionally run airline to dole. The fact that the federal government has always been there to dole out bailout packages to the debt-trapped airline has resulted in this attitude of the management. These are no allegations as Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar, the federal defence minister, has admitted these facts in a written reply submitted in the Senate on September 14. He had mentioned in the reply that overstaffing in PIA is a major issue and needs to be tackled immediately. However, he said, no reduction of manpower will take place in operational areas of pilots, aircraft engineers, technicians and specialised professionals. He states that PIA has made 2,171 new appointments during the last three years of which 1,854 were regular and 317 contractual. This is quite a significant number keeping in view that the total strength of PIA employees, as mentioned by the minister, stands at 8801. This means around 25 per cent of the total PIA staff was recruited during these three years. Another startling disclosure made by the defence minister is that as many as 165 PIA officers draw salaries above Rs 0.5 million. This entails the number of those getting salaries in the range of Rs 0.1 million to Rs 0.5 million would be much larger. The less than desired number of aircrafts available with the PIA, the high average age of the fleet and unsatisfactory level of maintenance and security related compliance are further causes behind the deteriorating condition of PIA. The average age of the fleet is 22 years and many of these planes are not fuel efficient. Passengers have to wait for long as they have to fly planes arriving from other places. If a flight is delayed, all the subsequent flights involving that plane are automatically delayed as there is no backup arrangement. Due to this tight schedule, little time is left for the arriving aircraft’s maintenance work as it has to take the waiting passengers for onward journey. Besides, the overhauling limit of ATR planes is 5,000 flight hours in Pakistani conditions and not 15,000 as advised otherwise. From now onwards, overhauling will be done after 5,000 hours as the aircraft is being used on the hot and sandy routes of Balochistan and the Interior Sindh. The availability of funds to buy spare parts without delay is also an issue. Reportedly, the engineers give repairing touches to the parts in need of replacement and try to pass as much time as possible. Such acts may serve a major blow to PIA as happened in the case of A310 aircraft which are under the watch of EU inspectors for fuel leakage. The PIA MD’s announcement to buy 80 aircraft including narrow-bodied and fuel efficient jets in the near future and the signing of a deal with a spare parts supplier company establish these facts. The said supplier company was given preference as it has agreed to give 90-day credit facility to PIA to the tune of $700 million. The reasons enumerated above are not exhaustive but do give an idea of the overall state of affairs at the airline and the enormity of challenges it faces. They are also enough to make policymakers realise that cash injections and bailout packages are no permanent solutions. Had they been, the accumulated losses of PIA had not been above the Rs.100 billion mark. Nothing less than genuine efforts to reform and let the airline run on professional basis and free it from political influence can get any of the desired results.
“The
standards of PIA have improved” The News on Sunday: Passengers are opting for other airlines instead of PIA. What are the reasons behind the deteriorating services? Nadeem Khan Yousafzai: It is not true that passengers are opting for other airlines instead of PIA. In 2010, the number of passengers flown was 4.2 million and in 2011, it is 4.5 million. This shows passengers’ trust and confidence in PIA. We have set up a separate Customer Relations Department and based on the feedback of our valuable passengers, we initiate and bring further improvements in our services to ensure customers satisfaction. Moreover, we have been always devising new market strategies in order to attract more passengers and with regards to PIA service standards, I am proud to say that standards have improved considerably over the past years. TNS: Is the flight safety an issue with PIA? And does PIA meet the international flight standards? NKY: Flight safety is a concern of every airline in this world. PIA operations strictly follow international safety standards and we are a certified operator by IATA and other aviation authorities. Recently, we have revalidated our IOSA certificate after the very stringent safety audit by IATA audit organisation. Our operations are also in line with the state regulations. Flight safety assurance is a programme managed by competent and experienced personnel on a continuous basis. TNS: What is the strength
and status of PIA fleet? NKY: Presently there are a total of 39 aircraft in PIA fleet. 33 aircraft are operational, three aircraft are under scheduled maintenance and three in unscheduled maintenance. As many as 37 aircraft will be operational by October 15, 2011 and by November 15, 2011, the complete fleet will be fully operational. A comprehensive fleet renewal and expansion plan is being prepared to cater to requirements up to 2020. PIA would select narrow body jets to replace Boeing737 and Airbus A310. We expect induction of new aircraft from mid 2012. TNS: People are afraid of travelling by PIA. Do you think PIA is losing its market share due to technical problems? NKY: Our image in the world is not what is being projected here. We are above our seat factor targets. PIA is one of the pioneers of aviation industry in this region. According to the world aviation history and records, PIA is conducting safe flight operation and providing best services. This is evident from our full load flights on all sectors. We can say that we are losing our market share as a result of shortage of fleet. TNS: There is an impression that pilots/captains on the managerial positions were hurting PIA performance! NKY: There are only four captains working on management positions in the airline. One is the managing director, while three other captains are posted as directors. In no way the pilots in management are hurting the PIA’s performance. Only those pilots who are professionally sound and have management skills are detailed on management positions. These pilots possess more than 30 years experience in aviation industry and have extensive international exposures. Their technical advices on vital aviation issues contribute a lot to resolve the problems. TNS: Recently a PIA Airbus was stopped in France and their Civil Aviation Authority demanded an explanation regarding the condition of PIA aircraft. Will PIA face another ban by EU? NKY: Our flight was grounded on purely technical reasons. During refuelling at Paris Airport, fuel leakage on aircraft developed. PIA inspection team reached there on the first available flight and our engineers addressed the issue as per Aircraft Maintenance Manual. Therefore, the aircraft was released for operation (flight) to base station (Karachi). Onward rectification work along with checks and process monitoring is going on. We are confident that there is almost no chance of ban on PIA flight operation in EU. TNS: PIA has been in loss for a long time. What exactly are the reasons for this? NKY: The major reasons include volatility in oil prices. The unprecedented increase in oil prices in 2008 caused a loss of Rs15.5 billion. It is not feasible to fully hedge against such sharp price swings, which are beyond the control of PIA. All airlines suffered such losses during that period. The fuel expenses in 2010 exceeded by Rs13 billion than that of the 2009 cost. The financial year 2011 has not been helpful either and the average fuel price during the first half year of 2011 was $111 per barrel approximately that resulted in additional Rs10 billion expenditure. Besides, due to the sharp devaluation of Pak Rupee, PIA recorded an exchange loss of Rs24 billion in 2008, Rs6.7 billion in 2009 and Rs2.09 billion in 2010. In September, Pak Rupee depreciated to historic low value of Rs87.7 per USD. Due to heavy long term financing and short-term borrowings, PIA is burdened with very high financing cost amounting to Rs10 billion per annum approximately. TNS: If one compares PIA with any other international airlines, don’t you think that majority of its cabin crew is over-weight and over-aged? NKY: As far as weight is concerned, PIA is following a standard weight policy for cabin crew and they are bound to go through weight checks regularly. However, some cabin crew have become un-presentable, but are within the specified weight limits. They are kept under constant monitoring. Our designated grooming officers carry out regular counselling sessions to improve their appearance. As a semi-government institution, we have to follow rules and regulations of the government regarding retiring age of its employees, which is 60 years. However, as per PIA policy, retiring age of PIA female cabin crew was 35 years with a relaxation of 10 years subject to grooming and fitness. In 2005, PIA retired more than 40 female cabin crew at the age of 45. All of them filed cases in courts. Supreme Court gave a decision in their favour and advised PIA not to discriminate between male and female cabin crew and maintain a uniform policy regarding retirement of male and female cabin crew, therefore we are bound to adhere to the court ruling. TNS: Why are the airhosts so short-tempered and why don’t they smile? NKY: There is no denial of such cases. From the very first day of their training, the cabin crew is taught to serve the passengers with courtesy and smile. During the service period, they are scheduled to attend various training sessions on the job and skill training. If any complaint is received against any cabin crew regarding behaviour and attitude, the concerned crew is immediately taken to task and counselling sessions and refresher training are arranged to improvise his/her attitude.
fleet Whether in Europe, America or anywhere in the world, when a passenger steps on board a PIA aircraft, he or she is in Pakistan by virtue of PIA being the national flag carrier. But, the safety and security situation on PIA planes deprives the passengers of this charm. The spectre of travel chaos is badly haunting air passengers who are travelling on PIA flights. The national-flag-carrier has long been plagued with technical, operational and aviation safety problems at the national as well as at international level. In the past couple of months, there have been several aviation fiascos. Though there was no human casualty, the passengers remained traumatised. Poor aircraft fleet, shortage of funds, lack of skilled technical manpower, hectic flight schedules and excessive human resource are core reasons for PIA's terrible performance. According to sources, of the total 39 aircrafts owned by the national flag carrier, at least 27 are twenty years old or more, purchased in the early 1990s. The remaining 12 are considered 'new' despite being five to eight years old. Presently, the PIA uses
five types of aircraft for its international and domestic flights including
Boeing 737, Boeing 747, Boeing 777, ATR and Airbus 310. Out of them, Boeing
737, Boeing 747 and Airbus 310 are outdated aircrafts that are unfit for any
domestic or international flight. These aircraft reportedly do not meet the
safety standards laid down by the United Nations International Civil
Aviation Organisation (ICAO). In the past few days, dozens of PIA's international and domestic flights have seen horribly prolonged delays due to 'technical' reasons. Things have worsened in the last couple of days amid reports of technical landings and postponement of foreign-bound as well as domestic flights. The PIA officials say it is because of the strict safety and security measures they take. "PIA operations strictly follow international safety standards and whenever the pilots senses something compromising the aircraft goes through a complete inspection resulting in delayed flight," said Sultan Hasan, GM Public Affairs PIA. "Better late than never," he said. But the question arises why do pilots sense technical faults so often? The question marks on PIA's performance are not limited to safety standards only, as the immigration authorities of foreign countries have imposed fine to the tune of Rs68.063 million on Pakistan International Airline (PIA) during the last three years on account of carrying illegal immigrants or black-listed passengers using forged visa/passport. The most common denominator which has contributed to collapse of all these is mismanagement, rampant corruption, cronyism, pilferage and wrong choice of controversial men to key executive assignments. The national airline's Maintenance Repair and Overhaul (MRO) has been outsourced to companies, whose poor performance is exhibited by ever rising technical defects that have led to unprecedented cancellations and delays of flights. The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO)'s comprehensive safety oversight programme imposes a legal obligation on contracting states to ensure that their aircraft and operators comply with the applicable international Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPs) developed by the ICAO. Pakistan is a signatory to the Chicago Convention. Article 37 of the Convention which is related to adoption of International Standards and Procedures (SARPs) that requires that each contracting state undertakes collaboration in securing the highest practicable degree of uniformity in regulations, standards and procedures in relation to all matters of civil aviation in which such uniformity will improve air transport services. In Pakistan the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is regulating all aspects of commercial aviation activities. Safety oversight is a core function of CAA and it is the primary responsibility of CAA to effectively implement ICAO's Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme (USOAP) and ensure that airlines are operating in compliance with aviation safety rules and regulations. It is worth mentioning here that PIA continued to adopt a cavalier attitude towards aviation safety requirements and a number of violations were reported with PIA planes in last couple of months but the CAA did not impose any fine on PIA. "The responsibility of developing an internal mechanism and institutional culture to address aviation safety violations lies with the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA)," said Shah Murad, an aviation lawyer and advocate high court. "There are serious issues relating to flight standards and airworthiness of aircrafts that need to be addressed by the CAA in order to ensure safety and security of passengers and to reduce the probability of plane crashes." Analysts suggest that besides grossly mismanaged financially, over staffing is another problem for PIA. Probably PIA has the highest employee's vs. aircraft ratio. PIA has 40 planes and its total staff is over 20,000. This means 500 staff for each aircraft against the international standard of 150 to 200 employees against each aircraft. On the other hand, KLM-Air France has 205 aircrafts with 31,787 employees which mean 155 employees against each aircraft. The Aerofloat has 107 aircrafts with 14,000 employees which means 130 employees are serving on each aircraft. Rejecting this staffing standards, PIA says that since the airports in the developed nations were operating on a complete automated system reducing number of employees, they could not be compared with PIA.
Not
at your service The mention of the national carrier to people who have travelled with the airline does not bring a smile on their faces; rather most of them have to say things which do not go in the airline’s favour. That is because there are quite a number of issues, problems as the passengers say, which have not been addressed by the PIA administration over a period of time despite continuous decline in the standards and services, ranging from uncertainty in flight confirmation to the level of hygiene in the aircraft washrooms. A random pick of people The News on Sunday (TNS) spoke to came out critically about the state of services offered by the airline to the passengers. “The most off-putting thing is when you reach the airport and you’re told the flight is late for at least an hour,” says Amir Butt, who works in a development organisation based in Lahore. “This is more annoying when you know that you had dialled up the enquiry and you were told that the flight is on time,” he adds. Butt is not alone in his
verbal complaint, “Ticket confirmation is a very difficult process at
times,” says Muhammad Azhar, administrator at a media organisation in
Islamabad. Being the administrator of an organisation he has to arrange for
air tickets every other day and comes in contact with the PIA officials.
“You find yourself in a fix when you’re told, for instance, that no
confirmed return tickets are available and you have to either take risk or
turn to another airline,” he says, adding, “When you ask for the next
available flight, they are not sure if you will get it confirmed or not.
This seems to be a routine now; though that is not to say that other private
national airlines are doing a wonderful job.” Azhar says the airline’s
online assistance is not always a help, “I have to rely on the PIA website
some times but that does not work properly and you only end up wasting your
time.” The standard of food often comes into question. Mobeen Ahmed Chughtai who works with a non-government organisation in Islamabad, shares a personal experience; “The food we were served on board was cold so, after a little effort, I was able to locate a crew member and asked her to place it in the oven for a minute or two. To my surprise, when I got my food-tray back it was as cold as it was a few minutes ago. One does not expect such things on a national airline,” he says, adding, “If you think this is the only episode of inefficiency, let me share another incident. Believe me, once we kept sitting in the aeroplane for about 50 minutes at the runway before take off and no one was telling us exactly what had happened. Later, we came to know that there was some issue of non-payment of fuel which delayed re-fueling.” Nadeem Iqbal, head of a consumer rights body in Islamabad, points to another loophole in the service system of the airline, “I have observed that they do not treat passengers with equal attention and care. If you’re some influential politician or businessman, you’ll get all the attention and care. But if you happen to be an ordinary citizen, they will not treat you in the same way,” he says. Nadeem relates an experience, “On a national flight, one could see a minister and a politician standing in the corridor and chatting, causing inconvenience to other passengers but no crew member asked them to go to their seats.” To Nadeem, it is not just about less food or bad food; it is also about lack of variety in the items they serve. And it is also true sometimes in international flights. “It often happens that you have to eat the same type of food on a flight in the morning and in the evening. In addition to that, there seems to be no training of the staff on treatment of small children. That is a very important thing. Then, there is often no in-flight music or entertainment either. This is simply a show of unprofessional attitude,” he says. But there are people that have not experienced a bad episode on a PIA flight. “I and my spouse have travelled quite a few times in the PIA but have faced no problem,” says Umaira Ansari, who works for an international NGO and has to travel frequently in and out of the country. “I am based in Nigeria these days and am in Lahore right now for vacations. I have the experience of some African flights also which is not very pleasant, to say the least.” Umaira compares the PIA with international flights, “I think the bad condition of PIA service is a little exaggerated. To me, it is not as bad as some may say. For example, you have to pay for food in some European airlines. And the crew is not always very caring either,” she says, adding, “We should see the issue from the crew’s point of view. Some passengers are very impolite and indecent but the crew has to bear with them all the time.”
Towards
solutions On September 30, 2011, President Asif Ali Zardari chaired a performance review meeting of Pakistan International Airline (PIA) in Islamabad. He called for implementation of a wide ranging reform plan to tone up PIA by arresting rising liabilities, stemming general decline and converting it into a profitable organisation. He said that a reform package was also necessary to safeguard interests of the organisation and its employees. Presidential Spokesperson Farhatullah Babar told media that the special meeting had been convened in the backdrop of reports about the airline that suggested all was not well with it and called for toning up the organisation. “The President said that injecting more finances alone was not the answer. What we need in equal measure is the optimal utilisation of financial, material and human resources as well as finding out of box solutions for renewal of the existing fleet”. This is not the first time that the present government has announced the need for reforms in the PIA which suffered a staggering over Rs75 billion losses during the last five years. In April this year Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar, Federal Defence Minister, told the Senate that they were planning to restructure the whole organisation in consultation with professionals. “We will definitely come out with the programme within the next 15 to 20 days. Things are moving in the right direction” and assured the House that all parliamentarians will appreciate our new restructuring plan.” Interestingly, a few days
after his claim the first quarter performance report of PIA was released
which showed that the airline had registered a loss of Rs4.24 billion in the
first quarter of the current year. Syed Sultan Hassan, General Manager Public Affairs PIA, says that the president has directed the PIA management to make it a progressive and profitable airline. “We are working on a plan to make PIA a profitable organisation which will be implemented after government’s approval. We are focusing on cost-cutting measures and planning to separate core and non-core functions. We are planning to outsource non-core functions like all major modern airlines,” he tells TNS. The president has ordered PIA management to increase the strength of its fleet from 38 at present to 80. “It is a good suggestion but it will take some years to increase the strength of our fleet as it is a lengthy process and can take a year to buy one airplane,” he says, adding that another major issue is automation of airports. “In Pakistan we need at least four persons to load one suitcase on plane while at modern airports in developing countries everything is done by machines. We are going towards automation but it will take time.” PIA insiders believe that it is not easy to reform the airline for many reasons including aging fleet, overstaffing and corrupt management. They say that the number of employees remain three to four times higher than international standards. “For instance, according to international standards giving a clearance certificate to an aircraft is the responsibility of one engineer. In PIA, five engineers do this job, each clearing one particular operation of an aircraft. It is a tough task for management to utilise under-performing employees. By December 2011 at least 12 aircrafts including six Boeing 737-300 and five Boeing747-300 will have to be grounded as they will complete their lives by then. It will decrease strength of fleet to less than 30”. Overstaffing is not the only problem, according to them. A good number of competent professionals have left PIA and joined other airlines while PIA is full of average and below average employees who are appointed because of their political affiliations. Some PIA officials believe that employees’ unions and associations are part of the problem as they resist reforms when it does not suit them. “The former managing director Captain Haroon’s efforts to use technology to run PIA systems including that of the crew management were also bitterly opposed by trade unions. Despite availability of a computerised system, crew management in PIA was done manually, which resulted in abuse of the system and out-of-turn assignments,” they say that implementation of computerised system has checked corrupt practices. Sultan Hassan does not believe that cutting jobs will help reform the airlines. “We are planning to double number of our fleet which means we would need trained people for flying these aircrafts. Downsizing is not an option, we are thinking of other solutions,” he says. Union leaders of PIA do not think that overstaffing is an issue. They argue that PIA’s salary bill is around 16-18 percent of its total budget. “It is really low compared to other international airlines which have a salary bill of 25-35 percent while they have been outsourcing most of their non-core functions while in PIA we do everything in-house,” Abid Saleem Khan, central president PIA senior staff association tells TNS. “It is true that PIA has around 400 employees per plane and if we cut the jobs of non-core employees, the number will decrease to 210 but it would increase the expenses manifold. We are not against new technology but every management comes up with new ideas and does experiment on employees but do not cut off their expenditures. They never take our suggestions while making reform plans. It is not possible to reform an organisation without taking its employees into confidence.” He says that management not only discriminates workers during job but also on retirement. “Common workers get meager amount as pensions while high ups get millions. We respect all suggestions of present government because it raised our salaries twice after so many years but the PIA management also needs to take us seriously and consider us part of the solution and not problem, if it is really serious in making PIA a profitable organisation,” he concludes.
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share shrinking is true. At the back of this trend are serious issues of
flight safety and level of in-flight service, etc. News about a PIA flight
escaping an accident appears in the media every other day. And this is not a
recent phenomenon. The EU had deemed it right to keep its skies off limits
to the airline. On their part, the airline ascribes the financial losses to
the rise of fuel prices in the international market and the devaluation of
Pak rupee. But these are not reasons valid enough for a continuous decline
in the airline’s performance, once a profit-making enterprise in the 1950s
and 60s. Today, financial and administrative mismanagement are the core
problems.
