Pakistan OKs funding for airline PIA's redundancy scheme

Pakistan has approved funding of about $81m in cash to support flagship carrier Pakistan International Airlines’ planned voluntary redundancy scheme, which could affect thousands of jobs. The loss-making carrier has been looking to reduce costs, particularly since the impact of the pandemic, as well as the fallout from a fake pilot credentials scandal. PIA is aiming to cut roughly one-third of its workforce, a document seen by Reuters showed, which would reduce the airline’s headcount to roughly 7,000-7,500 employees from the around 11,000 staff PIA said it employed in its 2019 annual report. The government has approved 12.87b Pakistani rupees ($81.46m) in funding for the airline to move forward on the voluntary retirement scheme, the document also showed. The Pakistan government said Tuesday: “After ... discussion, it was decided to approve, in principal, the voluntary separation from service scheme for PIA.” In the document seen by Reuters, PIA said it was looking to reduce its aircraft to employee ratio to 250 employees per aircraft.<br/>