PIA Acquisition: Stakeholders Express Optimism

Business stakeholders have offered positive views of Pakistan International Airlines’ (PIA) acquisition by the Arif Habib consortium with some seeing it as a chance to improve service and safety, while others say it could help revive investor confidence and accelerate the privatisation of other state-owned enterprises (SOEs).

Chief Executive and Secretary General of the Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OICCI) M. Abdul Aleem told Dawn he viewed the transaction as a positive step towards privatisation and said the government should be commended for handling the process “professionally”.

“We are positive that once things are stabilised by the new management, PIA will attract foreign investors,” he said, adding that the next few years woudl be critical and that the new management should be supported by all stakeholders.

Former Pakistan Business Council CEO Ehsan Malik said the debate on PIA’s privatisation had largely overlooked what matters most to travellers. While policymakers focus on valuation, liabilities and timing, passengers, he said, judge airlines on simpler things such as punctuality, cleanliness, safety, staff response and route reliability. On these basic metrics, PIA had steadily lost public trust, he added.

Mr Malik said passengers today booked PIA not out of preference but compulsion, citing limited alternatives on some routes, especially to smaller cities, lack of competition during peak travel periods and affordability concerns.

Frequent delays, last-minute cancellations, inconsistent communication and poor ground handling had become routine, he said, adding that overseas Pakistanis increasingly viewed PIA as an airline of last resort rather than a preferred flag carrier.