Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) and Etihad Airways has recently re-launched codeshare partnership to access un-serviced markets and provide customers with clearer routing. The arrangement will provide customers with access to both airlines’ trunk routes between the UAE and Pakistan, and on Etihad services across its global network. The partnership would see Etihad Airways place its ‘EY’ code on PIA services to and from Abu Dhabi to Lahore, Islamabad and Peshawar. PIA would place its ‘PK’ code on Etihad services from Karachi, Islamabad and Lahore to Abu Dhabi and vice versa, and also onwards from the UAE capital to Amsterdam, Bahrain, Colombo Chicago, Frankfurt, Los Angeles, Madrid, Moscow, Washington DC, and Zurich. This will be a great opportunity for PIA to join hands with Etihad Airways, the national carrier of the emirate of Abu Dhabi, connecting Pakistan to UAE and around the globe, expanding reach to more destinations for the convenience of passengers.
The relationship between Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates has always been a strong one as both countries share historical, commercial and cultural links and this partnership with PIA is a natural progression for both carriers. In future, PIA’s services would be expanded to Amman, Athens, Brisbane, Melbourne, Nairobi, Rome and Sydney. Etihad Airways has been serving Pakistan since November 2004, and currently operates two daily flights from Abu Dhabi to Islamabad, 11 weekly flights to Lahore, and a daily service to Karachi. PIA has been serving Abu Dhabi for more than three decades and flies seven weekly flights each from Lahore, Islamabad and Peshawar.
PIA is one of the oldest and most experienced airlines in Asia. It has entered into similar code-sharing arrangements with Turkish Airlines and Mauritius Airlines as well. Revival of PIA is among government’s top most priorities. A number of reforms in the operations of the national flag carrier have been undertaken after which a considerable decrease in the operational losses has been achieved. In addition to increasing PIA’s regular flights by 48, two new aircrafts had been included in the organization’s fleet. However, there is still need to further improve the performance of PIA. Some of the steps that have been taken to boost revenues are as under:
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- Introduction of new profitable routes including Sialkot-Sharjah, Islamabad-Doha, Lahore-Muscat, Sialkot-Paris, Sialkot-Barcelona, Multan-Sharjah, Peshawar-Sharjah and Peshawar-Al-Ain
- Cost-reduction measures to narrow down losses of PIA
- Rehabilitation of the runway, taxiway and apron at Saidu Sharif, Chitral, Rawalakot and Muzaffarabad (AJK) airports for tourism licences
- Separation of regulatory and service provider functions of the Civil Aviation Authority to steer efficiency in aviation activities.
- Inauguration of the newly constructed Gwadar International Airport.
- Upgrading the airfield lighting system at Gwadar and Quetta airports and undertaking a clean and green drive at all major airports of the country.
- Curbing of money laundering activities by ASF.
- Installation and upgradation of weather radars and automatic weather stations.
In addition to the above, PIA has embarked upon new initiatives to facilitate online payments and offer new payment channels to its passengers by integrating local payment gateways and other payment channels like ATM, branch-less banking and mobile wallets. PIA has engaged the financial industry including the leading banks and the telcos to offer new payment channels to its passengers. PIA is also working to introduce new Baggage Reconciliation System (BRS) by mid-2020, which help passengers to track their baggage journey and also help airline to bring efficiency in the baggage management and also to reduce losses due to baggage reclaims. iv. Similarly, for the engineering system, a new Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) system is at the implementation stage and in scheduled to go live by March 2020.
PIA has changed its core reservation system (Passenger Reservation System – PRS) from a system that was being used exclusively for last eighteen years. PIA’s new website and mobile Apps (Apple & Android) have been launched to increase its on-line sales. PIA is very actively promoting and interacting with its customers through on-line social media channels. Additionally, for the first time PIA has entered in contract with all the three major Global Distribution Systems (GDS), which will help PIA to increase its visibility on agent networks and also on the online channels like Online Travel Agents (OTAs) and Meta search engines.
[box type=”note” align=”” class=”” width=””]The writer is a Karachi based freelance columnist and a banker by profession. He could be reached on Twitter @ReluctantAhsan[/box]