ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday said that the new Islamabad Airport will be an icon of excellence internationally and will further promote the progressive image of Pakistan.
The Prime Minister expressed these views while chairing a meeting on Pakistan International Airline (PIA) and the aviation affairs at PM House in Islamabad.
The Prime Minister reviewed the progress on the new Islamabad Airport and was apprised that all construction packages of new Islamabad Airport are on track.
He directed to complete the link road project from Rawalpindi to New Islamabad Airport by March 2017. The National Highway Authority (NHA) was also directed by the Prime Minister to monitor the quality of work on the link road project according to the required standards.
The Prime Minister reviewed the overall performance of the National Flag Carrier during the last six months.
The Chairman PIA gave a comprehensive presentation to participants of the meeting and briefed that significant enhancement in revenue has been registered.
The meeting was informed that the passengers uplift has registered a total increase of 26.7 percent while capacity of the Airline has registered an increase of 17.3 percent.
Domestic market share of PIA has significantly increased and performance of the cargo in terms of revenue has also enhanced satisfactorily.
The meeting was briefed that PIA has now additional frequency of flights abroad that is going to increase further in months ahead.
On roadmap to additional aircraft, the Chairman briefed that the existing strength of aircraft is 37 and PIA will have 50 aircraft by March 2018.
PIA is also in dialogue with Airbus for new aircraft and plans to induct seven brand new wide body and ten narrow body aircraft, the meeting was informed.
The Prime Minister was also briefed on the progress of work on the expansion of Allama Iqbal International Airport Lahore.
The Prime Minister directed for expediting the expansion work and removing bottlenecks.
The Prime Minister constituted a committee that will solve budgetary problems of PIA and Civil Aviation. The committee will submit the detailed proposals and solutions within next 15 days.
