Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) is actively pursuing a fleet expansion and restoration plan, targeting a total of 60 aircraft as part of its broader revival strategy. Arif Habib, Chairman of the Arif Habib Consortium for PIA, shared these details while addressing industrialists at the Korangi Association of Trade and Industry (KATI) on Thursday.
Currently, PIA owns 30 aircraft, with 18 actively flying and five to six undergoing maintenance and repairs. Efforts are focused on restoring these grounded planes to service, which would increase the operational fleet to 26 in the near term. The long-term vision is to scale the fleet up to 60 aircraft.
Habib expressed pride in representing the business community at the government level and emphasized his role in informing policymakers about the challenges faced by businesses. He noted that Pakistan’s economy has stabilized, citing improved revenue collection, better expenditure control, and effective debt servicing in the current fiscal year. However, he underscored the importance of lowering production costs to ensure sustainable economic growth.
He pointed out that electricity tariffs remain high primarily due to capacity charges, despite low consumption levels. Habib explained that if the existing transmission capacity, which exceeds 22,000MW, were fully utilized, electricity prices could drop by Rs10 to Rs12 per unit. Achieving this would require increased power consumption.
Highlighting the need for unity, Habib urged the business community to transcend political divides and present a unified voice to the government. He argued that such solidarity would compel authorities to address their concerns more effectively. Additionally, he identified information technology, agriculture, and mining as vital sectors capable of driving economic recovery and growth.
In a related remark, Hasan Bakhshi, Chairperson of Abad, called on the business community to unite and form a consortium to manage loss-making public sector entities like the Water Board, Karachi Metropolitan Corporation, and Sindh Building Control Authority. He criticized their current performance as negligible and asserted that the business sector has the capacity to run these institutions more efficiently.
