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Syed Sultan Hassan, GM Public Affair, PIA talked to MORE team, following are the excerpt.
What is the market position of PIA?
If you take the Pakistani scenario in the aviation industry, PIA has no comparison with the private airlines operating in Pakistan. Our fleet, customer base and network is much bigger than our competitors. So practically speaking, PIA is the major airline in Pakistan which is recognized across the world. The only disadvantage we have is that we have a tough competition with gulf carriers due to our open air policy. It does not give us an edge but still we try and compete with them. We try to manage PIA in the best possible manner.
How will you achieve 100 million revenue targets?
We have increased our flight frequencies; have started new destinations in Europe. We are further planning to start new destinations. When this all happen, we expect to achieve the targets. Besides, we are trying to improve our business
Syed Sultan Hassan, GM Public Affair, PIA
class. At the moment, we are undergoing periodic livery change along with adding more comfort to our business class because this is the area which gives maximum benefits.
We are also improving the economy class in order to provide maximum comfort to our regular customers. I can happily take this credit that PIA is the most trusted airline for all the age groups in Pakistan. It gives us the confidence.
How PIA is able to maintain a balance between cheap fare and maximum flight frequency?
As far as the fare is concerned, the current operating cost has been increased many times during the last couple of years. Even though, our fare is competitive in the market. What if we could bring down the basic fare to the minimum level and then start asking for the extra money for baggage and taxes etc. We do not believe in any such thing. We have a consolidated ticket that includes everything in it. Even the meal, which most of the airlines are not offering on their domestic flights, is served properly in our domestic flights.
We cover more destination and location in domestic operations as compared to other airlines in Pakistan. You will see PIA operating between Chitral to Gawadar on various routes very frequently keeping in view the comfort of our customers.
In these days, we have a high demand to increase our flight frequency between Gilgit and Skardu. At the moment, we have 40 planes in our fleet. We are working on it. Also in our business plan of 2010-2014 which we are sending to the government, we have highlighted this area to expand our fleet and reduce our operating cost to a maximum possible level in order to increase our profitability. We want to get rid of our inherited financial losses and make this airline viable. I tell you, after 5 years of losses, PIA earned an operational profit of around Rs. 2 billion in 2009.
If we stick to our plans in the years to come, I am pretty hopeful that this airline will become very healthy in financial terms.
What does PIA do for customer’s safety?
On the aircraft, we are improving our security standards, for this, we are adopting new techniques. In the recent years, 
traveling in Pakistan has been affected greatly due to the security situation. But, PIA has adopted a different solution in this domain as well so that foreign travel could feel safe in during their stay in Pakistan. We have introduced an insurance policy for the foreign traveler whoever comes to Pakistan. At the time of buying PIA ticket we inform our customer about this policy for which he/she has to pay a very nominal premium of US $10. During his/her stay in Pakistan, no matter how many days, if God forbid, anything should happen to our customer, we provide a cover of up to Rs. 1 Million. Besides, we are also emphasizing to promote a soft image of Pakistan. For example, newly created province of Gilgit Baltistan is being developed very rapidly; government is taking keen interest in that area. Other than this, we have tons of natural sites and beautiful places in Pakistan which international tourists do not want to miss. We are trying to address the safety concerns of international travelers about those areas. On our various international forums we are convincing people that PIA is there to cover the entire journey and it is safe from all aspects. We are doing this in order to build Pakistan’s soft image as well as to promote the tourism in Pakistan being the national flag carrier.
As per your new business plan, how many new destinations you are going to open in Pakistan?
Currently, the flights in our northern areas are dependent on weather. Also, we lack the infrastructure in terms of airports and other related things. For example, we can only send our smallest aircraft, which is ATR, to Gilgit but nevertheless, despite of weather conditions we have recently increased the frequency of our flights to Gilgit. Similarly, Skardu has a comparatively bigger airport; therefore, we have added further two more flights of 737 Boeing in that area.
PIA is also working very closely with Sialkot Airport Authority, which is Pakistan’s first privately owned organization building any airport. The airport is in the final stages of completion and it is going to be a latest and fully equipped airport meeting all the international standards. You will be able compare it with any international airport.
This interview has been published in the August 2010 edition of MORE Magazine. Digital copy can be downloaded from this archive (MORE Magazine Archive)
