PVDtoDEL
Feb 15, 12, 6:35 am
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/15/pakistan-airline-idUSL4E8DF2LR20120215
SLAMABAD, Feb 15 (Reuters) - On a recent Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight, water flowed from the toilets through the aisles during the entire journey from London to Islamabad.
"What if it reaches some electrical wires and puts us in danger?" said one concerned passenger to another after flight attendants brushed off repeated complaints.
"This could be a catastrophe."
PIA, like Pakistan, always seems to be on the brink of disaster. But now that seems closer than ever for the national flag carrier, once a source of pride for the country.
The airline is hemorrhaging hundreds of millions of dollars a year while being pummeled by competition from sleek Gulf giants like Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways.
A quarter of its 40 aircraft are grounded because the airline can't find enough money to buy spare parts. Flights are regularly cancelled and engineers say they are having to cannibalise some planes to keep others flying.
"The situation has worsened to the extent of rendering this airline almost financially unviable," said the State Bank of Pakistan in a report on the state of the economy.
In many ways the airline mirrors the way Pakistan -- a strategic U.S. ally often described as a failing state -- is run.
The same inefficiency, nepotism and corruption that critics say have prevented the government from tackling a Taliban insurgency, crippling power cuts, ethnic violence and widespread poverty also threaten to bring down the airline.
PIA lost 19.29 billion rupees ($212.7 million) in the first nine months of 2011, almost double the losses in the same period in 2010.
The airline, like the Pakistani economy, has relied on bailouts to stay in the air, and is negotiating with the state for another rescue package.
"Just like PIA has the potential to do well, Pakistan's economy does too. But both haven't because of mismanagement. In the end that is the story -- mismanagement," Salman Shah, a former Pakistani finance minister, told Reuters.
PIA officials declined to comment on the challenges facing the airline.
...
While AI is hardly the brilliantly run airline that I wish it was, it seems that they've been doing pretty ok after all compared to another airline in a similar position...
SLAMABAD, Feb 15 (Reuters) - On a recent Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight, water flowed from the toilets through the aisles during the entire journey from London to Islamabad.
"What if it reaches some electrical wires and puts us in danger?" said one concerned passenger to another after flight attendants brushed off repeated complaints.
"This could be a catastrophe."
PIA, like Pakistan, always seems to be on the brink of disaster. But now that seems closer than ever for the national flag carrier, once a source of pride for the country.
The airline is hemorrhaging hundreds of millions of dollars a year while being pummeled by competition from sleek Gulf giants like Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways.
A quarter of its 40 aircraft are grounded because the airline can't find enough money to buy spare parts. Flights are regularly cancelled and engineers say they are having to cannibalise some planes to keep others flying.
"The situation has worsened to the extent of rendering this airline almost financially unviable," said the State Bank of Pakistan in a report on the state of the economy.
In many ways the airline mirrors the way Pakistan -- a strategic U.S. ally often described as a failing state -- is run.
The same inefficiency, nepotism and corruption that critics say have prevented the government from tackling a Taliban insurgency, crippling power cuts, ethnic violence and widespread poverty also threaten to bring down the airline.
PIA lost 19.29 billion rupees ($212.7 million) in the first nine months of 2011, almost double the losses in the same period in 2010.
The airline, like the Pakistani economy, has relied on bailouts to stay in the air, and is negotiating with the state for another rescue package.
"Just like PIA has the potential to do well, Pakistan's economy does too. But both haven't because of mismanagement. In the end that is the story -- mismanagement," Salman Shah, a former Pakistani finance minister, told Reuters.
PIA officials declined to comment on the challenges facing the airline.
...
While AI is hardly the brilliantly run airline that I wish it was, it seems that they've been doing pretty ok after all compared to another airline in a similar position...