Foreign banks are willing to help Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) improve its financials as the national carrier returned to stability track on rise in revenue, the Airline’s Chief said
PIA Chief Executive Officer Arshad Malik said international banks have come forward, “showing their interest in investing in the national carrier after observing the steady improvements.”
Malik said the airline’s losses have been brought considerably down and “Will be evident from 2019 audited reports. Seat factor has risen to 84 percent due to which both revenue and network spread are also increasing,” he said, addressing the third annual general meeting. PIA has recently inducted two aircraft in its fleet.
PIA Chief Financial Officer Khalilullah Shaikh, Secretary Muhammad Shuaib, and other officials attended the meeting to discuss 2018’s financial performance. The plan to privatise the cash-bleeding airline was shelved in the past after public protest.
The meeting was told that PIA’s accounts, which had not been finalised for the past three years, were finalised within three months and 2018 AGM’s accounts were cleared and enforced. As soon as 2019 financial year ends, work will initiate to compiling the financial results, it was told.
“The shareholders appreciated PIA’s management for their acknowledgment and support,” a statement said. “They believe in transparency for responsibly taking out the pending tasks.”
PIA chief informed shareholders about PIA’s recent developments and current challenges.
“The biggest challenge the company was facing was that three years’ audit had not been done,” he said. However, he lauded the team that worked non-stop and finished the last audit in record time.
All the observations made in the last meeting have been tackled in this year’s audit and this year’s audit has been cleared without any observation.
Malik said the team is hopeful that the last remaining audit would be completed by June 2020.
PIA CEO said the country’s leading organisations have been engaged in co-branding with PIA, including Askari Bank, IHIG, ARY Group, BankIslami, Jazz, and National Bank of Pakistan.
“The CEO stressed that it is his team’s constant endeavor to keep generating a steady revenue stream irrespective of how big or small it is,” the statement quoted Malik as saying.
“The CEO is hopeful that the numbers of 2019 will be even better when they will be presented in June 2020 for review.”