By Imran Aslam Khan
Part 2.
“Great People To Fly With” – said Jacqueline Kennedy for PIA in 1962.
So, what went wrong with PIA?
Incompetent employees, inducted through nepotism and political influence, and fueled by deep-rooted corruption, played a major role in bringing PIA to its knees. The airline was barely kept afloat—first on taxpayers’ money, and then on the branding that it was the “National Flag Carrier.” Every Pakistani paid the price, and we all subsidized their salaries. These salaries, drawn from the national exchequer, came to be seen as a birthright, while little to no regard was given to the airline’s actual performance.
The attitude of the employees often projected them as disgruntled, as if they were doing the airline a favor by showing up for duty. This was hardly surprising, given the number of political appointees and ghost employees who never reported for work. Instead, they could be found in the political offices of labour unions or various political parties.
You simply cannot expect an airline to perform amidst political interference and entrenched corruption.
Several audit reports—available within the airline, in various government departments, and before the Public Accounts Committee—document these anomalies and highlight the malpractices, to put it politely.
Failures in PIA Operations:
PIA boasted professional staff across all departments until the 1980s. The decline had already begun, however, largely linked to the country’s economic downturn—a reflection of a deteriorating society. Things truly fell apart in the 1990s.
The PIA Training Centre was once the most prestigious training organization in South Asia. It housed all the necessary airline training facilities, including simulators for various aircraft, which were always acquired alongside the induction of new aircraft types. The training quality of all staff was ranked among the best in the airline industry. Similarly, its MRO (Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul) facilities were considered top-notch in the region.
But with incompetent manpower—whose goal was not career development but personal enrichment through corruption—different departments began to fail in a systemic manner. Training systems decayed. Political appointees gradually rose to the helm of affairs, becoming heads of departments. Successive governments even appointed political figures with no aviation management experience or background as heads of the airline. It was a perfect recipe for catastrophic failure—and it did fail.
Let me also remind you of an earlier catastrophe: the nationalization of the airline that was later named Pakistan International Airlines, or PIA. That airline was Orient Airways, founded by the Ispahani family, who shifted their pre-partition business from what is now India to Pakistan—purely out of love for their new homeland and on the invitation of Quaid-e-Azam. The question remains: why was it nationalized then, and why is it being privatized now? That is certainly debatable.
To be continued in Part 3 where i will suggest systematic improvements needed to revive PIA.
About the Writer: Imran Aslam Khan is an experienced Aviation Professional with a strong background in drafting amendments to Pakistan’s Aviation Rules and shaping national Aviation Policy. He is the founder of the Aircraft Owners and Operators Association (AOOA) Pakistan
