The national airline, having the word “international” in its name, does not actually fly internationally. Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), formerly the pride of the country and a role model and mentor in the aviation industry, has been dropping altitude for the past twenty-five years and is now perilously close to land. The airline is plagued by incompetence and vested interests.
Sagging and damp seat coverings, soiled floor carpets, a filthy and unkempt appearance, broken toilet doors, rattling planes, and failing equipment all require restoration, better maintenance, and planning. It is vital for the PIA management to put up significant effort in order to alleviate traveler worry. While in route from Paris to Lahore, one of PIA’s aircraft was inspected by inspectors from the Safety Assessment of Foreign Aircraft (SAFA) at Paris Airport. They discovered multiple snags in the plane. PIA was cautioned by the organisation to overcome the flaws or face the repercussions. The team discovered a fuel leak in one of the Airbus A-310’s engines. As a result, passengers were evacuated in the event of an emergency.
PIA has seen a large-scale induction of fake degree holders between 2008 and 2014. Incompetent employees are one more significant justification behind its financial misfortunes. The PIA has the largest per-flight crew among contender carriers, and nothing has been done to address this issue, which serves as a major detriment to the PIA’s financial balance.
Increases in oil prices, overstaffing, and devaluation of the local currency, political influence, and PIA’s precarious financial status have all been important issues in the recent decade. Its failure is primarily due to weak governance, poor performance, and corruption. PIA was well- known throughout the world for its great performance and quality. That was the peak of PIA’s success. However, it has since lost its brilliance.
The PIA, with the help of “TQM,” must lay the groundwork; to build good management, every employee from top to bottom must work together and be focused on customer satisfaction, using an information system or the internet to communicate with customers and all sub-departments about flight delays and other issues.
Management should cooperate with auditors to resolve financial reporting issues, ongoing audits, and issues with the ERP system in order to give the finance data credibility and be able to use it to inform the transformation.
Modern aircraft are not just designed to crash owing to mechanical issues, but also due to human error. It merely takes proper maintenance and management by skilled pilots and engineers, as well as solid governance to keep track of these details
The PIA should reduce the number of personnel appointed on political grounds because the majority of them are a drain on the P.I.A’s budget because they are paid for nothing. They aren’t bringing anything to the table for the organisation.
The state of the airline suggests that the management has a weak capital structure, inadequate planning and fleet limits, issues with accountability and discipline, poor policies, and undue association influence. It is in the midst of a liquidity crisis. No improvement will be effective unless and until the airline is managed well and operated with the proper culture in the right environment.
Amna Zubair,
Lahore.