LAHORE -  PIA is planning to close three European destinations after New York, already losing up to $8 billion every year as foreign airlines are taking more than 50 percent passenger load to international destinations.

The major beneficiaries of the country’s flawed aviation policy are three airlines belonging to three Gulf countries.

Pakistan Airline Pilot Association (PALPA) President Capt Khalid Hamza, talking to The Nation, termed the decision a big blunder showing lack of commercial aviation experience on the part of the current airline management.

PIA is planning to close down routes of Barcelona, Milan and Paris after the recent closure of New York, he added. The executive committee of PALPA has decided to approach the Senate and NA standing committees to brief them on the disastrous impact of the shrinking network.

It is worth mentioning here that the national flag carrier has already suspended its operation in Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Bradford, Glasgow Chicago, Moscow and Istanbul while premier services and many other profitable routes have been closed, showing losses through juggling with figures whereas the airline keeps on facing losses on many domestic routes like Gilgit, Chitral, Skardu, Gwadar, Pasni and Zhob, but it continues to provide services for non-commercial reasons.

Sources in Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) revealed that from Karachi alone the capacity of foreign flag carriers for UAE is approximately 5,000 seats daily, of which Emirates has 50 percent market share with daily seven flights from Karachi to Dubai.

The total loss Pakistan is facing on Karachi-UAE sector is approximately $725 million. If we include other stations i.e. Lahore, Islamabad, Peshawar, Faisalabad, Multan and Sialkot, the yearly depletion of foreign exchange of the country is around 6 to 8 billion dollars. Yearly capacity of foreign flag carriers from Karachi to UAE is approximately 1.825 million seats. “Assuming 75 percent seats utilisation by these flights throughout the year, we get 1.368 million seats which are utilised annually from Karachi station,” an aviation expert said. Now assuming that 60 percent of these utilised seats are available for UAE, we get 821,250 seats. This leaves around 547,500 (40 percent) seats for foreign destinations beyond UAE, like Europe and USA, the expert said.

If tickets are sold for Rs 25,000 on an average for Karachi-Dubai flight, the dollar value amount comes to $ 200 million. Similarly, on an average if tickets are sold for Rs 100,000 for beyond-UAE flights, the dollar value amount comes to $ 525 million.

This brings foreign exchange reserves depletion as all foreign operators convert their sales into dollars to remit the earning to their countries.

These are all Pakistani passengers who travel on these foreign planes. They are compelled to use foreign flights as there is no adequate capacity in local planes.

“The current management does not have commercial aviation experience and should not even think of closing down this route because once it’s gone it would not be reclaimed and the traffic once diverted towards other flag carriers would not be attracted back as is the case of Mid East diaspora shifted to Gulf airlines from many major and small cities of Pakistan,” said Capt. Khalid Hamza.

“PIA is being systematically ruined due to vested interests. We had been having landing rights in New York since 1952 and PIA was the first Asian airline to operate transatlantic flights on jet planes,” he added.

Spokesman for the national flag carrier said New York route was suspended, not terminated, and would be resumed anytime. About three more routes supposed to be suspended shortly, he said, “How is it possible to suspend three routes at a time?”