KARACHI: IATA Consultancy, an international aviation firm, has presented a business plan for Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), which, if adopted, would see the loss-making state-owned airline break even by 2025 and generate 3.4 percent profits the following year.
On Tuesday, Minister of Finance and Revenue Shaukat Tarin and Minister of Aviation Ghulam Sarwar Khan were briefed with a complete business plan covering the years 2022 to 2026.
The meeting was also attended by the secretary of aviation, the secretary of finance, the secretary of EAD, the PIA board of directors and members, the PIA CEO, and senior executives.
By 2026, PIA assets would increase from $1.196 billion to $2.183 billion as a result of the plan’s implementation.
In the fiscal year 2020, PIA recorded a loss of Rs34.6 billion. According to experts, losses in FY2021 to have escalated dramatically due to the pandemic and, more importantly, the chain of events that followed the fake pilot licenses controversy, which rendered Pakistani pilots unfit to fly to the United States and Europe.
The proposal was commissioned by the Ministry of Finance last year in response to a study by Dr. Ishrat Hussain, a former special counsel to the prime minister on public enterprise reforms.
Dr. Ishrat’s study was also referred to as a comprehensive restructuring strategy for PIA in order to not only make it profitable, but also to turn it into a viable business unit focused on its core functions.
Officials at the helm of the finance ministry and the planning commission sought a business plan created by an international consultant for PIA because the proposal required financial restructuring worth hundreds of billions of rupees.
