PIA announces fare reduction in national, int'l flights

Pakistan International Airlines today announced a 50 per cent cut in fares on most sectors to salvage its image, a day after unions withdrew their strike that crippled the ailing national carrier's services for nearly a week.
Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) spokesperson Daniyal Gilani said that most fares had been reduced by 50 per cent including for Umra flights.
"This has been done because during the strike we witnessed an unrealistic hike in fares by all airlines and we also want to facilitate our customers," Gillani said.
The Joint Action Committee (JAC) called of its strike yesterday after six days of the PIA operations coming to a complete standstill after the employees went on a countrywide strike to stop the government from privatizing the airlines.

The government wants to convert the Pakistan International Airlines Corporation (PIAC) into a public limited company and plans to split the ailing national carrier into two companies and sell the control of its core business to a global airline, but the opposition to the sell-off has been intense.
Last week on the first day of the strike two PIA employees were also killed during violent protests in Karachi.

Over 600 flights were cancelled and the already cash- starved company suffered huge losses, approximately billions of rupees, in addition to severe hardships to passengers.
Yesterday Sohail Baluch who heads the JAC said the strike had been called off after the government agreed to hold talks with the employees representatives and listen to their point of view and grievances.

The government has also appointed a competition committee to investigate into a drastic hike in fares by private airlines during the period the national airlines flight operations were suspended.