PIA holds awards distribution ceremony

ISLAMABAD—Chairman of the PIA Tariq Kirmani gave away best performance awards to the top 50 best performing travel agents selected from all over the country and graded according to the revenue they generated for PIA, here on Thursday.
Addressing the agents before the award giving ceremony the chairman highlighted the achievements of the PIA in 2005 and compared it with the previous years. This year he informed the travel agents the Seat Factor achieved by the airline was 80 per cent which was better than the network Seat Factor of most leading International Airlines, averaging around 73 per cent. Similarly, the punctuality of the PIA was 87 per cent which was the highest for nearly 26 years, ever since 1979.
There was a frequency increase on different sectors and new routes that were added to the PIA's network. All this was achieved within the existing constraints of fleet in PIA. Few airlines can boast of such progress only within a period of nine months.
He said that the strategy of buying new and leasing airplanes served two purposes, namely, business expansion and reducing the average age of the fleet from twenty years now to nine years and eventually five or less then five years. The professional business approach, he reiterated, dictated that you "spend money to gain money."
He said that there were two types of customers, internal and external adding that the relationship with the internal customers rested on their performance and revenue earned for the airline, while the external customers' satisfaction was a barometer for both the airline and the satisfactory performance of the internal customers.
The satisfaction of the external customer was of prime importance, he said. PIA was a service industry and must operate under the concepts of convenience, comfort and competitiveness, the 3 C's, all carried out with a smile. PIA, he maintained, will follow these three concepts to the fullest expectation of its passengers.
Kamaran Hussain, Senior Vice President Marketing, PIA gave a presentation on the current status and new plans of PIA for the future.
The presentation was very enlightening for the Travel Agents. The ceremony was followed by a question answer session in which one of the participants said that such a recognition and reward of the Travel Agents was for the first time ever in PIA's history.—INP