ISLAMABAD : Oct 8 : A manual ticketing system has turned Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) into a financial gutter over the years.
Sources said PIA suffered huge financial loss over the years due to having a provision of issuing manual tickets by its agents . ” If one asks what is one major factor in bringing PIA to a financial collapse it’s provision of issuing manual tickets by the agents”, said a senior official of the national flag carrier .
Another PIA source familiar with PIA operations and management confirmed in a background interview with NEWSMAN that PIA has lost over Rs 100 million as a result of allowing manual tickets to its agents. ‘PIA is losing millions of dollars on sale of international tickets being issued manually by its agents” this source said .
He claimed that Canada and US stations are causing huge loss to PIA as their concerned officials are continuously issuing tickets manually without including any tax on them.
An Indian lobby in Canada is operating in connivance with PIA senior officials to financially damage PIA and expedite the process of collapse of the national flag carrier, this source said.
PIA office in Canada and US are continuously issuing manual tickets which do not include applicable taxes . None inclusion of taxes in PIA tickets is bitting the national airlines like a double edge sword . The national airlines does not get any tax on manual tickets, but it pays the applicable taxes on total issued tickets to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).
When NEWSMAN sent a questionnaire to Abdullah Hafeez, PIA spokesman at Islamabad station for PIA side of the story , he said ‘Travel Agents are not allowed to issue manual tickets. In case of any fare or tax discrepancy, debit memos are raised to concerned agents for collection of short payment”.
Abdullah Hafeez ‘s arguments do not match with the facts . PIA insiders verified that the national airlines does have a provision in its agreements with IATA of permitting issuance of manual tickets by its agents. NEWSMAN’s investigations confined that hundreds of PIA agents are issuing manual tickets and Canada and US stations use this provision to use this black hole to prefer the interests of Indian lobby rather than protecting the interest of the national airline. “We know many cases wherein Canada and US stations issued 2-way international tickets for just Rs 1000”, a senior official of the airline said requesting anonymity .
This source also confirmed that IATA office in Singapore has reported issuance of manual tickets to PIA head office. Our investigations also confirmed that the travel agents used the provision of issuing manual tickets to deprive PiA of it’s revenue in huge volume . These sources confirmed that despite whistle blowing by IATA office in Singapore , PIA top management never bothered to put in place any check and balance system to stop pilferage of PIA financial resources .
These sources also confirmed that around 150000 tickets have been issued by various PIA agents in the last one year and this caused loss of millions to the national airlines just in the recent past.
The sources referred the case of Al-Taqi Travel Islamabad whose management caused around Rs 60 million loss to PIA by issuing manual tickets to the passengers . There are hundreds of other cases with the same level of steeling PIA revenues .
Such pilferage and none existence any accountability have turned PIA into a financial gutter which keeps on overflowing to make things stinky . PIA is among top 10 loss-making public entities and its entire responsibility lies on its corrupt senior management.