There was a time when Pakistan International Airlines was a source of national pride. Its aircraft carried the country’s flag across continents, its service was admired, and its technical facilities were regarded as state-of-the-art. Today, PIA stands as a case study in institutional collapse driven not merely by financial mismanagement, but by structural rigidity and cultural stagnation.

I spent years working with a company that provided technical support to PIA. What I witnessed was not simply an airline burdened by debt, but an organisation trapped in its own past. PIA had built an impressive in-house maintenance ecosystem: an engine overhaul shop capable of handling dozens of wide-body engines annually; component, pneumatic, landing-gear, and instrument shops; and multiple overhaul facilities for aircraft structures and hardware. A fully equipped test bench existed to test wide-body aircraft engines after overhaul.

Following its long-standing philosophy of keeping maintenance in-house, PIA constructed a massive wide-body aircraft hangar—known as the Ispahani Hangar capable of performing all categories of heavy aircraft checks. With this addition, the airline operated three major maintenance hangars: the Fokker Hangar, the Block Hangar, and the Ispahani Hangar. Combined with its engine overhaul shop, this gave PIA one of the most comprehensive technical infrastructures in the region, allowing it, at least in theory, to keep its fleet operational without major delays or flight cancellations.

Yet despite this formidable physical capacity, PIA continued to send some engine work abroad. Six A310 aircraft equipped with CF6-80C2 engines and two Boeing 747s powered by Rolls-Royce RB211 engines were overhauled overseas because PIA lacked the specialised tooling and the required FAA certifications to perform these tasks locally. Even the test bench needed upgrading before overhauled engines could be properly tested and cleared for service.

PIA Privatisation: Ending Decades Of Losses And Mismanagement In Pakistan’s Flag Carrier

Instead of recognising that an airline can operate a fleet efficiently while outsourcing selected heavy maintenance, PIA management clung to the belief that everything had to be........

© The Friday Times