A PIA press release said that the improvements in operational indicators translated into an increase of 10 percent in overall revenue during July-September 2005 over the same period of last year.
It said that aggregate revenue was recorded at Rs 15,981 million in this quarter as against Rs 14,556 million of last year, denoting an improvement of Rs 1425 million.
Operating expenses, excluding fuel, were contained to within 1.1 percent. Fuel expenses, however, driven by record increases in global prices, continued to rule the roost, adversely impacting the gains in revenue. PIA's fuel bill in the last quarter increased by a phenomenal 52 percent over the corresponding quarter of last year totalling Rs 7,140 million (2004: Rs 4,704 million).
The PIA Board of Directors noted the progressive growth of key operational indicators of the airline, with passenger traffic increasing by 12 percent and passenger seat utilisation improving from 71 percent of last year to a record 80 percent in this quarter.
Passenger seat utilisation at 80 percent was better than all leading competitors in the region. As a result of several marketing initiatives taken in May 2005, PIA was able to recapture its lost market share in targeted markets. PIA's share of domestic passengers went up from 46 percent in April 2005 to 58 percent in July-September 2005.
Similarly, its share of international passengers ex/to Pakistan increased from 43 percent in April 2005 to 47 percent in July-September 2005. It has thus reasserted its position as market leader in an increasingly competitive environment.
The board noted that the growth in traffic was achieved despite reduction in capacity by 0.9 percent during the same period. Matching deployment of capacity with demand resulted in PIA's fleet utilisation, outperforming industry averages for all aircraft types in PIA's fleet.
The board was apprised of the strategies being adopted in key areas of the airline to enhance revenues, cultural costs and improved standard of service. This included proactive marketing decision-making to stay ahead of competition, re-engineering operating procedures to economise on fuel burn-off, restructuring and reorganising human resources so as to improve employee productivity, disinvestment in non-core activities and instituting control mechanisms for containing the controllable costs.
The board was informed that the airline was confident that its multi-pronged strategies on targeted fronts would keep it on the path of sustained profitability.
The board appreciated the various measures being taken by the management to steer the airline through these difficult times faced by the entire aviation industry.
The meeting was attended by Director General Civil Aviation Air Marshal (Retd) Pervez Akhtar Nawaz, Additional Secretary Ministry of Defence, Major General (Retd) Muhammad Ashraf Chaudhry, Asad Ali Khan, M.H.K. Khaishi, Javed Saifullah Khan, Dr Sughra Junejo, S Ali Raza and Kamal Afsar.