KARACHI, Nov 25 (TNS): Pakistan’s national airline PIA, known and prone for corruption related scandals and miss haps has fetched another case of misconduct and favoritism.
This time foreign travel agents caused it the loss of millions of potential revenue thanks to the negligence of Marketing Deportment of the airline.
Sources privy to the Airline have revealed that the said travel agents from Britain have issued free return tickets to 28 passengers of just one Lahore to Jeddah bound 759 flight thus striking a blow of the loss of millions of revenue to the airline.
Pertinent to mention that Lahore to Jeddah is the only route of which the airline earns the most.
According to the sources Chief Commercial Officer Bilal Shaikh, known for being telecom expert, too is involved in the scam and the surprise for all is that a US Company, employed against two billion annually as fee to ensure transparency into the functioning of the airline, couldn’t bust the fraud.
Among 28 said tickets 5 were issued by a British travel agency in the name of Aero Brunei. Despite the fact that PIA isn’t engaged in any agreement with Aero Brunei, the PIA administration falsely claimed that said airline will pay it back, just an attempt to save its skin.
Another travel agency from Honolulu is said have issued 18 tickets.
According to sources PIA has started investigation against Chief Commercial Officer but the spokesman of the Airline, Mashood Tajur has denied it by saying that reservations, as being routine work aren’t doesn’t stand to be investigated. He said that the Airline had cancelled all the tickets thus the question of loss doesn’t arise.
Sources say that if the issue is thoroughly investigated many scams of the agents operating in Pakistan and abroad might emerge out of it.
