Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif chaired meeting on PIA and aviation affairs at PM House today.
The Prime Minister reviewed the overall performance of the National Flag Carrier during the last six months. Chairman PIA gave a comprehensive presentation to the participants of the meeting and briefed that significant enhancement in revenue has been registered. The passengers uplift has registered a total increase of 26.7 percent while capacity of the Airline has registered an increase of 17.3 percent. Domestic market share of PIA has significantly increased and performance of the Cargo in terms of revenue has also enhanced satisfactorily. The meeting was briefed that PIA has now additional frequency of flights abroad that is going to increase further in months ahead. On roadmap to additional aircrafts, the Chairman briefed that the existing strength of aircrafts is 37; PIA will have 50 Aircrafts by March 2018. PIA is also in dialogue with Airbus for new aircraft and plans to induct seven brand new wide body and ten narrow body aircrafts, the meeting was informed.
Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif also reviewed the progress on the New Islamabad Airport. The Prime Minister was apprised that all the construction packages of new Islamabad Airport are on track. Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif said that the New Islamabad Airport will be an icon of excellence internationally and will further promote the progressive image of Pakistan. The Prime Minister was also briefed on the progress of work on the expansion of Allama Iqbal International Airport Lahore. The Prime Minister directed for expediting the expansion work and removing bottlenecks. The Prime Minister constituted a committee that will solve budgetary problems of PIA and Civil Aviation. The committee will submit the detailed proposals and solutions within next fifteen days.
The Prime Minister also directed to complete the link road project from Rawalpindi to New Islamabad Airport by March 2017. The National Highway Authority was directed by the Prime Minister to monitor the quality of work on the link road project according to the required standards.
Federal Minister for Finance Mr. Mohammad Ishaq Dar, Secretary Finance Dr. Waqar Masood Khan and other senior government officials were also present during the meeting.
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