Islamabad to split PIA into two entities, lease hotel to NYC

The Pakistani government plans to divide PIA - Pakistan International Airlines into two entities, one administrative and the other operational, in an effort to ease the severe financial condition of the state-owned carrier, the country’s transport minister Khawaja Saad Rafique said at a news conference in Lahore on June 4. PIA cannot continue in its current form and changes are needed to improve its operations, he said. He did not elaborate on which parts of the company would be placed where, or whether the proposed move was an extension of earlier plans to restructure the heavily loss-making airline or to sell segments of the carrier. However, he did speak about the Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan, New York, which closed in October 2020 following huge losses and is owned by the airline through its investment arm PIA-Investment Limited. The hotel has been given on lease for three years to the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, he announced. “The Roosevelt Hotel is an asset of Pakistan in America. We have given it and its 1,250 rooms on lease for a period of three years, and Pakistan will earn US$220m through this lease. We have now utilised this precious asset to generate money,” he said, as quoted by the news channel ARY News and other outlets.<br/>