ISLAMABAD- The cash-strapped Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has acquired an advanced Airbus A320 simulator, it emerged on Thursday.
The equipment has been acquired from the United Kingdom and will be utilized to train pilots on modern lines. A spokesperson for the national carrier confirmed that the equipment cost Nine Million Dollars ($9 m).
With the latest procurement, the national airline now possesses three simulators in what appears to be beneficial for the aviation industry.
The state-of-the-art simulator would help train pilots associated with private and national carriers, improving their efficiency and capacity.
The PIA spokesperson elaborated that pilots are being trained on tackling extreme weather events during landing and take-off with the help of simulator.
The equipment would help the national carrier offer training to the pilots instead of sending them abroad, thus saving millions of rupees every year.
Besides, the carrier would also improve its revenues by offering the equipment and training facilities to the pilots associated with private carriers in the country.
Although the procurement of the simulator is a welcome development, the national carrier still seems to be battling financial challenges as it was recently on the brink of grounding 15 planes bringing down the number of operational aircraft further.
PIA’s challenges worsened after it was reported that the supply of spare parts to the carrier could be suspended over cash flow problems.
Earlier, the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) also discussed issues pertaining to PIA which has been sustaining losses for quite a long period of time now.
In the final days of the PDM regime, it was also decided to privatize loss-making Pakistan International Airlines during a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Privatization chaired by then Finance Minister Ishaq Dar.
The committee “after deliberation decided to include Pakistan International Airlines Co. Ltd. in the list of active privatization projects of the ongoing privatization program, following an amendment in the law by the Parliament,” a finance ministry statement had said.
