The head office of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), including the flight services division, commercial department and human resource divisions, will be shifted from Karachi to Islamabad by the end of January as part of the restructuring plan of the national flag carrier.
PIA’s other operations like flights scheduling, corporate development department, work division and supply chain management will be shifted to Islamabad by February 2021 while the engineering department will be moved by the end of June 2021.
The management is also considering to discontinue its current model of medical facilities as it is a huge burden on the airline. A ‘Sehat Card’ will be launched for the employees and if this move doesn’t work then government hospitals will be taken on the panels instead of private hospitals.
Two weeks back, PIA launched a Voluntary Separation Scheme (VSS) to lay off 3500 employees to achieve 1:250 (250 per aircraft employees) ratio. The deadline for this scheme is December 22. The deadline for Mandatory Separation Scheme (MSS) is January 21, where people will be laid off after evaluating their performance.
In addition to this, PIA will be separating the non-core functions and fast track across the board accountability and deadline for it has been set for March 2021. Efforts are being made to let the employees get separated in a dignified way with a good financial package.
The management is trying its best to lower the deficit of the airline with a goal to reduce the number of employees to 3,500.
