PIA Losses drop 44% in first half of 2014

Society Pakistan & World Affairs
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**Good performance

BTW when they will go for the privitization of 25% shares of PIA ?**

Corporate result: PIA losses drop 44% in first half of 2014

By Our Correspondent
Published: September 25, 2014

http://i1.tribune.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/766823-Habibbankprofitsstorycopy-1411594301-327-640x480.jpg

The Rs5.23 billion exchange gain, which came because of a stronger rupee against the dollar, offset a sharp 88% decline in other income. PHOTO: STOCK IMAGE

**

KARACHI: **Financial loss of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) came down 44.89% to Rs 10.131 billion in six months to June 2014 over the same period of previous year as the airline booked exchange gains, higher revenues and a reduction in administrative expenses.

Helped by a rise of 11% in revenues to Rs 53.34 billion, the national carrier posted a gross profit of Rs 338 million for January-June 2014, reflecting an improvement in its flight operation, according to the airline’s financial statements.

The Rs 5.23 billion exchange gain, which came because of a stronger rupee against the dollar, offset a sharp 88% decline in other income. In the first half of 2013, the airline had recorded an exchange loss of Rs 1.46 billion.
Cost-controlling measures helped PIA reduce administrative expenses by 6.7% to Rs 4.34 billion against last year’s Rs 4.65 billion.

Heavy debt of Rs 279 billion continues to take its toll on the cash-strapped airline as it has to bear the burden of ever increasing interest payments. This was reflected in the 21.7% rise in finance cost to Rs 7.33 billion.

The second April-June quarter would have been even better had the airline not suffered an exchange loss of Rs 370 million. Other income when compared with the previous year also saw a steep decline of 90%.However, PIA was still able to record a gross profit of Rs 441 million.

The government has been drip-feeding the airline by helping it arrange loans to pay salaries and vendors as its balance sheet, which carries a negative equity, does not encourage lenders.

The government has decided to sell PIA after its restructuring. The air carrier has been pushing the government for months to release funds for leasing narrow-body fuel-efficient planes.

It has a fleet of 30 active aircraft, but many of these are often grounded for want of repairs.
*

Published in The Express Tribune, September 25[SUP]th[/SUP], 2014.*

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Re: PIA Losses drop 44% in first half of 2014

Govt plans to split PIA into two companies

By Reuters
Published: September 25, 2014

http://i1.tribune.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/767039-PIAplanesAFP-1411635373-821-640x480.jpg

Privitisation minister says no decision taken on buyer but names Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways as possibilities. PHOTO: AFP

http://i1.tribune.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/767039-PIAplanesAFP-1411635373-821-160x120.jpg

http://i1.tribune.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/767039-CHAIRMANpia-1411635092-291-160x120.jpg

NEW DELHI: Pakistan plans to split ailing national flag carrier Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) into two companies and sell control of the core business to a global airline over the next 18 months, but political opposition to the sell-off will be intense, the country’s privatisation czar said.

Financial advisers are now in talks with several airlines about taking over cash-strapped PIA, which has some 17,000 employees but just 36 aircraft – and 10 of them are grounded due to a lack of spare parts.

**Minister of State for Privitisation Mohammad Zubair **told Reuters in an interview during a visit to New Delhi on Wednesday that no decision had been taken on the buyer, but he mentioned Emirates Airline, Etihad and Qatar Airways – the Gulf giants that dominate the regional sector – as possibilities.

“It’s going to be the most difficult sale,” said Zubair, who is aiming to raise around $4 billion this fiscal year from the sale of stakes in several companies, anticipating demands that the government hold onto PIA and nurse it back to health itself.

“If we are saying that for 25 years PIA has been going from bad to worse, we can’t claim that we are business-savvy and we can turn it around,” he said. “Anyone who thinks that the government can fund it is living in a fool’s paradise.”

Zubair, a former IBM chief financial officer for the Middle East and Africa, was tapped by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to take charge of a central plank of economic reforms promised by Islamabad in return for an International Monetary Fund bailout.

Pakistan announced this week it will seek to raise about** $815 million **through a sale of shares in Oil & Gas Development Co (OGDC), its largest offering in eight years.

Zubair said investors are returning to the country after weeks of anti-government protests in Islamabad that have now fizzled out, and the OGDC deal representing 7.5 percent of the company’s share capital would be a test of their confidence.

The OGDC sale is part of a sell-off drive to raise capital for an economy that has been crippled for years by power shortages, corruption and militant violence, and to staunch huge losses from dysfunctional companies. Zubair said the losses of power distribution companies alone are equivalent to one-sixth of the government’s fiscal revenues.

Next on the block will be the government’s 40 per cent stake in Habib Bank Ltd (HBL), which will be sold in two stages between November and next March, for around $1.2 billion.

Also ahead is the sale, targeted at domestic investors, of the state’s 7.5 percent stake in** Allied Bank Ltd,** for around $150 million, Zubair said.
**

Politically sensitive**

Once a source of pride for the country, PIA’s decay has made it the butt of jokes, one of which goes that its initials actually stand for ‘Perhaps I’ll Arrive’. Flights are regularly cancelled and engineers say they have to cannibalise some planes to keep others flying.

Last year a PIA pilot was jailed in the United Kingdom for being three times over the alcohol limit before he was due to fly. Pakistani media reported that another pilot delayed a New York-bound flight for more than two hours as he waited for a sandwich delivery.

Over the years, critics say, governments have manipulated state corporations like PIA for political and financial gain, giving jobs to so many supporters that the size of the workforce has become unsustainable in the face of mounting losses.

Zubair said that PIA’s employee-to-aircraft ratio, at around 600, is one of the worst in the world and keeps going up as more planes are grounded.

Under his plan, the airline will be spun off as a separate entity and PIA’s other interests – such as ground-handling, catering, hotels and even a poultry business – would go into a holding company that would be retained by the state.
To avoid mass layoffs that would run into political opposition the holding company would absorb all the employees, keep a share in the airline to earn dividend income and then sell off each of its interests individually over time.

Zubair said he could not proceed with the sale of PIA as quickly as other companies, partly because parliament may have to approve legislation allowing it to pass into private hands.

**“It’s more politically sensitive,” he said. “PIA is not going to be sold just like that.”

**

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Re: PIA Losses drop 44% in first half of 2014

PIA revenue up by 12pc in six months | Pakistan Today

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Re: PIA Losses drop 44% in first half of 2014

A 1962 photo showing Jacqueline Kennedy, wife of American President John F. Kennedy, disembarking from a Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) plane at London’s Heathrow Airport and being greeted by the plane’s flying and cabin crew.

Ms. Kennedy went on record saying that PIA was one her favourite airlines.

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Re: PIA Losses drop 44% in first half of 2014

Wht about fuel payment to saudia, I heard saudia asked to apy their 6 billion in 2 days else they will not give further fuel, I am already feeling for poor haji ppl who will be using PIA. n wht happened last night in Karachi, ask the passengers, satya nas kr dya PIA ka ask @Kinzzz she was in the plane

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ہر بیماری کا علاج مار دو یا بیچ دو.

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Re: PIA Losses drop 44% in first half of 2014

OLX

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Re: PIA Losses drop 44% in first half of 2014

:hehe:

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Re: PIA Losses drop 44% in first half of 2014

:k:
**
Golden Period of PIA**

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Re: PIA Losses drop 44% in first half of 2014

mubarkan it this what you consider as good performance. PIA staff involved in smuggling of drugs and cell phones.

PIA airhostess held with drugs - Pakistan - DAWN.COM

LAHORE: A PIA airhostess has been arrested in Italy after drugs were allegedly seized on her at the Milan airport.

According to officials, the airhostess left on Tuesday aboard a Lahore-Milan-Paris flight. Authorities at the Milan airport detected illegal drugs in her luggage. She was handed over to police for investigation.

The flight left for Paris according to the schedule.

“We are awaiting the report about the incident from authorities in Italy,” an official said.

**This is the third incident in a couple of months in which the PIA’s crew have been found involved in the smuggling of smartphones or drugs.
**
Published in Dawn, September 25th, 2014

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Re: PIA Losses drop 44% in first half of 2014

aik bar maoul party kamyab hooaye… meri poori koshish hogi kay amreeki sadar ki biwaina aur girl freindain asei bayanat doabara dena shro kardain…

You want Puran Pakistan… Vote Maoul Party
face-book…come/PM Mahool…

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Re: PIA Losses drop 44% in first half of 2014

very shameful act … must be investigated but individual act it is … nothing to do with PIA performance as an organization

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Re: PIA Losses drop 44% in first half of 2014

PIA to be split into two, Gulf airlines may buy core business - Pakistan - DAWN.COM

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Re: PIA Losses drop 44% in first half of 2014

You mean this performance

PIA to be split into two, Gulf airlines may buy core business - Pakistan - DAWN.COM

NEW DELHI: Pakistan plans to split **ailing national flag carrier PIA **into two companies and sell control of the core business to a global airline over the next 18 months, but political opposition to the sell-off will be intense, the country’s privatisation czar said.

Financial advisers are now in talks with several airlines about taking over cash-strapped Pakistan International Airlines , which has some 17,000 employees but just 36 aircraft - and 10 of them are grounded due to a lack of spare parts.

Mohammad Zubair told Reuters in an interview during a visit to New Delhi on Wednesday that no decision had been taken on the buyer, but he mentioned Emirates Airline, Etihad and Qatar Airways - the Gulf giants that dominate the regional sector - as possibilities.

“It’s going to be the most difficult sale,” said Zubair, who is aiming to raise around $4 billion this fiscal year from the sale of stakes in several companies, anticipating demands that the government hold onto PIA and nurse it back to health itself.

“If we are saying that for 25 years PIA has been going from bad to worse, we can’t claim that we are business-savvy and we can turn it around,” he said. “Anyone who thinks that the government can fund it is living in a fool’s paradise.”

Zubair, a former IBM chief financial officer for the Middle East and Africa, was tapped by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to take charge of a central plank of economic reforms promised by Islamabad in return for a International Monetary Fund bailout.

Pakistan announced this week it will seek to raise about $815 million through a sale of shares in Oil & Gas Development Co (OGDC), its largest offering in eight years.

Zubair said investors are returning to Pakistan after weeks of anti-government protests in Islamabad that have now fizzled out, and the OGDC deal representing 7.5 percent of the company’s share capital would be a test of their confidence.

The OGDC sale is part of a sell-off drive to raise capital for an economy that has been crippled for years by power shortages, corruption and militant violence, and to staunch huge losses from dysfunctional companies. Zubair said the losses of power distribution companies alone are equivalent to one-sixth of the government’s fiscal revenues.

Next on the block will be the government’s 40 percent stake in Habib Bank Ltd, which will be sold in two stages between November and next March, for around $1.2 billion.

Also ahead is the sale, targeted at domestic investors, of the state’s 7.5 percent stake in Allied Bank Ltd, for around $150 million, Zubair said.
‘Perhaps I’ll Arrive’

Once a source of pride for the country, PIA’s decay has made it the butt of jokes, one of which goes that its initials actually stand for ‘Perhaps I’ll Arrive’.

Flights are regularly cancelled and engineers say they have to cannibalise some planes to keep others flying.

Related: PIA airhostess held with drugs

Last year a PIA pilot was jailed in the United Kingdom for being three times over the alcohol limit before he was due to fly. Pakistani media reported that another pilot delayed a New York-bound flight for more than two hours as he waited for a sandwich delivery.

Over the years, critics say, governments have manipulated state corporations like PIA for political and financial gain, giving jobs to so many supporters that the size of the workforce has become unsustainable in the face of mounting losses.

Zubair said that PIA’s employee-to-aircraft ratio, at around 600, is one of the worst in the world and keeps going up as more planes are grounded.

Under his plan, the airline will be spun off as a separate entity and PIA’s other interests - such as ground-handling, catering, hotels and even a poultry business - would go into a holding company that would be retained by the state.

To avoid mass layoffs that would run into political opposition the holding company would absorb all the employees, keep a share in the airline to earn dividend income and then sell off each of its interests individually over time.

Zubair said he could not proceed with the sale of PIA as quickly as other companies, partly because parliament may have to approve legislation allowing it to pass into private hands.

“It’s more politically sensitive,” he said. “PIA is not going to be sold just like that.”

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Re: PIA Losses drop 44% in first half of 2014

PIA’s main problem is over employment and political appointments. PIA ko kha gaeey hain yee loog. Here is an example of plane to employee ratio

With only 25 serviceable planes out of a fleet of 34, PIA perhaps has the highest employee per plane ratio — standing at a staggering 780 employees per plane.
Emirates, with a fleet of 212 aircrafts, has employee-plane ratio of** 220 to one**.
Turkish Airlines, another important regional carrier with 236 planes, it is far lower — at 81 employees per plane.

Turkey sai buses khareed loo liken koi cheezz seekhna nahi kabhi

With 780 employees per plane, it was doomed to go down the drain even with billions govt is paying in subsidy

Source: Herald Exclusive: Plane truths - Pakistan - DAWN.COM

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Re: PIA Losses drop 44% in first half of 2014

@desert bird what is intikhabi nishan of PMLN… Tiger Ya Lion?

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Re: PIA Losses drop 44% in first half of 2014

PIA ek moTii aur ziyaadah doodh denewaali airline thii jise HukmaraanoN, intizaam kaaroN aur mulaazimoN ne uskaa doodh choos choos kar use ek adh marii aur sookhii gaaye banaa diyaa...ab is bechaarii gaaye kii yeh Haalat hai k bistar-e-marg par hai ar ab bhii in logoN kii nazar is par hai k kaise yeh mare aur kaise vo iskaa gosht poasht aur haDDiyaaN bech khaayeN...iske bechne men bhii saare apnaa apnaa commission khaayeNge!

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Re: PIA Losses drop 44% in first half of 2014

Bhai jaan aap kis chakkar men hen?? :5:

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Re: PIA Losses drop 44% in first half of 2014

lolz…ab kia sab kuchh maiN hii bataauuN? kuchh to apne qayaas ko dauRaayeN! :wink:

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Re: PIA Losses drop 44% in first half of 2014

kehtay lion han but ballot paper pe tiger bana hota ha :cb: