‘PIA suffered Rs 35b loss last year’
Business Thursday, August 20th, 2009Minister for Labour and Manpower Syed Khurshid Shah said Pakistan International Airline (PIA) suffered a massive loss to the tune of Rs 35 billion in 2008, and its was still in doldrums.
Replying to a supplementary question in the National Assembly on Wednesday the minister, however, said this loss had gradually started reducing.
He hoped this year the loss of PIA would be reduced upto 25-30 percent.
Shah said currently there wasn’t any proposal to procure new aircraft, however, he said more planes would have to be purchased any time in future to meet the growing demand.
He said two new airports currently were being constructed namely, New Benazir Bhutto International Airport (NBBA) Islamabad and New Gwadar International Airport (NGIA).
The NBBIA, he said, was being constructed by CAA through its own resources. The project is estimated to cost Rs. 37 billion.
NGIA is being constructed under the Public Sector Development Programme for which the government has already provided Rs. 1.5 billion for purchase of land.
The project is estimated to cost around Rs 7.5 billion.
The minister said PIA had leased a total of eleven aircraft for Hajj/Umra during the last year, while for this year it intended to conduct Hajj/Umra operation through its own fleet.
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on Aug 20 2009. Filed under