PIA planes get a facelift
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RAWALPINDI: Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has formally introduced a new livery and added a portrait of the Markhor on its aircraft, including a large one on the tail and two on the engines.
The font of the PIA logo has also been changed and it has been added to the belly so it is visible when the aircraft is flying overhead.
The previous livery was introduced 10 years ago and needed to be changed, said PIA spokesperson Mashood Tajwar, adding that these changes were part of the airline’s transformation and strategic business plan in order to give it a new and pleasant look.
See: PIA's turbulent flight into the sunset
“This is the first brand change in 10 years. Markhor is our national animal which can be found in the mountainous regions of Pakistan,” he said.
Adviser to the Prime Minister on Aviation Sardar Mehtab Ahmed Khan formally inaugurated the new livery and the portrait of the Markhor on Friday.
Senior officials of the PIA and Civil Aviation, including Secretary Aviation Irfan Elahi, PIA President and CEO Musharraf Rasool Cyan, COO Zia Qadir, CCO Bilal Munir Sheikh, Chief Technical Officer Amir Ali and HR Chief Asma Bajwa, were also present on the occasion.
Sardar Mehtab Ahmed Khan said PIA had taken a progressive step to rebuild its image and that it is one of the endeavours to rebrand PIA. He said the move also reiterates the country’s commitment to the preservation of the Markhor.
Mr Cyan said the PIA management will be upgrading the level and standard of facilities it offers.
“I appreciate this effort of rebranding the airline’s image. Markhor is the national animal, it is a fighter and does not lose heart in hard times,” said the adviser on aviation.
Meanwhile, Airbus A320 will land at the new Islamabad International Airport on Saturday as part of a mock exercise aimed at assessing preparations for official inauguration of new airport on April 20.
PIA spokesman Mashood Tajwar said the PIA’s A320 would take off from Benazir Bhutto International Airport at 12:30pm on Saturday as PK-9001 and will make landing at new Islamabad International Airport at 1pm.
He said PIA president and CEO Dr Musharraf Rasool Cyan will be on board to assess the operational ability of the new airport.
For the mock exercise, more than 350 invitations have been issued to the PIA staff members’ families, including some retired officials.
Published in Dawn, April 7th, 2018
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Comments (83) Closed
Apr 07, 2018 10:05am
Changing looks won't change fortunes but changing corrupt officials do !!
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Apr 07, 2018 10:12am
Hopefully the font used is ligit and available for public consumption unlike font used by the Sharif’s. Nothing will change unless the mental approach changes. Also staff behaviour should change like sensible adults and should take pride in working for the national carrier instead of carrying drugs, stealing property from hotels in which they stay. I doubt any thing willl change because they don’t have a desire to change. When a country has a liar of ex PM what else to expect from others. He had ruined the image of Pakistan and so do the staff of PIA.
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Apr 07, 2018 10:19am
And where is PAKISTAN written on the aircraft ?????
Is this another soft attempt to erase word Pakistan from our sight?
It is indeed necessary that our planes carry our name like all other Govt controlled airlines.
Its our soft image and free publicity.
Who did this or came up with this idea?
Recently a roundabout close to my home where a huge Pakistan flag stood (Jhanda chowk) was cleared in the name of beautification.
All this is very sad and extremely unpatriotic that our decision makers have started to remove our identity the PAKISTAN name and flag. Serious action should be taken before . . . . . or may be it's already too late !
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Apr 07, 2018 10:28am
is it for putting PIA for public auction? Come on rich guys bid...hurry up before the paint goes away..
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Apr 07, 2018 11:03am
These are cosmetic changes, not substantial changes. If that is all the PIA top brass can think of to make the airline viable they are devoid of big ideas with a long way to go.
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Apr 07, 2018 11:07am
PIA is a classical case of administrative and financial corruption. It was a great airline in days of Air Marshal Nur Khan and Asghar Khan. Parchi system for hiring on non merit basis introduced by Peoples Party in 70s brought this airline to present level.Imagine Emirates has 200+ aircrafts and we have less than 50 .Overstaffing is the main reason for the losses incurred every month.Tax payers are suffering because of this.
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Apr 07, 2018 11:17am
What a great news "PIA planes get facelift", and, as a result, other issues like, functional and management deficiencies are ignored to fool public by cosmetic change. This is a classical example of incompetent management, who are only interested in making money through different means and pleasing their masters.
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Apr 07, 2018 11:49am
A380 in the ad??? will PIA ever get these planes or even 787??
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Apr 07, 2018 11:49am
Only a fool would think that the most pressing issue at PIA is branding.
Fix the operations and the service and then you could paint the Markhor's backside on the plane and people would still love you.
PRIORITISE!!!!
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Apr 07, 2018 11:54am
Markhor is a snake eating animal. But strangely I see snakes all over the country!!!
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Apr 07, 2018 11:57am
@Shakir Baakza Btw, what does PIA stand for?
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Apr 07, 2018 12:05pm
Love it. Sign language is very big in world and Pia will represent it
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Apr 07, 2018 12:07pm
Good efforts.
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Apr 07, 2018 12:09pm
Expel the political appointed staff and make a smart organization, it will bring in Billions into national excequre
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Apr 07, 2018 12:21pm
All other issues aside, the new look is grand and captivating.
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Apr 07, 2018 12:22pm
New PIA Aircraft livery will attract more airplane spotters than passengers until the air line management look at the state of interiors of lair crafts eg dadmaged seats with broken arm rests ,dysfunctional entertainment system on board change behaviours of its staff &cabin crew
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Apr 07, 2018 12:23pm
Don't waste money and time on changing the logo. Fix the root cause. Hire on merit only. Fire all unnecessary staff
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Apr 07, 2018 12:28pm
Good attempt...at least to start with...all Pakistanis should support good work and not criticize just for the sake of criticism..we need to tackle corruption the main cause of PIA failure....
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Apr 07, 2018 12:37pm
Game changer for PIA
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Apr 07, 2018 12:37pm
Looks terrible. They keep redesigning PIA logos and designs to keep stealing more money. How much do they siphon off under the guise of these meaningless redesigns every few years? Emirates, KLM, Turkish Airlines, even Air India, are not focused on these constant rebrandings. The are focused on improving their service.
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Apr 07, 2018 12:39pm
PIA should first concentrate on eliminating the deeply-rooted corruption, nepotism, mismanagement, incompetence, unprofessionalism from within PIA in order to become a profitable airline and also pay attention to proper maintenance of the aircrafts. Just Facelifting the aircrafts with a portrait of a Markhor will not solve the long-standing problems of PIA because facelifting is all show and no substance.
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Apr 07, 2018 12:41pm
is this following the Qatari prince Airways?
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Apr 07, 2018 12:42pm
New look at what cost to the crippled airline?
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Apr 07, 2018 12:43pm
What does it make difference of changing tail logo in the pathetic service of this airliner? I already gave up travelling via this poor airliner decade ago.
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Apr 07, 2018 12:46pm
This new logo looks ugly and illogical. This is how this airline is being run. Incompetent, incapable and political affiliated people have destroyed this airline.
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Apr 07, 2018 12:50pm
PIA should stop lying to its customers. I traveled in this airline from ISB to DXB yesterday and to my satisfaction, I was served with stale rocky yellow bread and eggs. No running water in the washroom throughout the flight duration, creating a havoc of bad smell.
Since when did this airline started operating A380? Why did they have to lie even about their fleet? This is shameful.
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Apr 07, 2018 12:51pm
Beautiful, but tye staff on PIA's Oslo/Copenhagen-Pakistan flights is also in need of serious upgrades. More unattractive people can not be find any where.
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Apr 07, 2018 12:54pm
@Pervaiz Khan: Emirates is about to buy PIA and it operates the largest fleet of A380.
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Apr 07, 2018 12:57pm
Wearing a lion's coat cannot make monkey a lion.
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Apr 07, 2018 12:57pm
this is good design hope the whole department also change there attitude towards batterment............
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Apr 07, 2018 01:01pm
Cosmetic changes will not bring any substanial change in the opertaions of national carier. The government must take stern measures to change the fortunes of PIA otherwise it would become a history. Well how can they do anything when they themselves are reaponsible for plight of PIA !
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Apr 07, 2018 01:03pm
Good luck vPIA. Love you.
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Apr 07, 2018 01:07pm
The management is dong what they can, because it is difficult to retool and retrain its own staff and to bring a new culture to the organization which is key to the success of the airline. Maybe there is a lack of commitment on this account due to inherent conflict of interest of some elements in the government.
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Apr 07, 2018 01:14pm
PAI Or AI these are loss making and living on public money.
Employees of these public sector companies are inefficient and rude.
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Apr 07, 2018 01:14pm
I will fly on PIA provided they change their attitude and service standards.
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Apr 07, 2018 01:15pm
Keep on changing the looks, both dont bother to change it to a worldclass airline.
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Apr 07, 2018 01:19pm
Sadly the national animal (Markhor) is being hunted down in Pakistan, what a tragedy.
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Apr 07, 2018 01:22pm
The entire management needs to be changed. PIA staff were caught transporting drugs in France, and not a single executive lost their job. Shameful.
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Apr 07, 2018 01:26pm
Cosmetic changes to hide incompetence.
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Apr 07, 2018 01:30pm
I've joined PIA's FB page. Recently they have been re-branding and doing an overhaul of the organization. Let's hope for the best. Some of it is over the top where a lot of things become unnecessary but you can see them trying. If they really want to be successful they need to look at how other International airlines operate and brand themselves and also use methods, quality of branding, standards and techniques that International airlines use as a benchmark. Branding is only one part of of a successful organization. Each single component of the organization needs to be flawless. They need to start with getting in the right people with the right mindset, start flying on time and ensuring that there is no embarrassment in the future in foreign countries (drugs, etc). They should also get help from International marketing firms that focus on branding airlines.
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Apr 07, 2018 01:42pm
Let markhor sign bring any goodluck to PIA
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Apr 07, 2018 01:59pm
With the change in logo passengers can never be attracted to the lousy airline.
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Apr 07, 2018 02:00pm
Very Funny...Is this replacement of our Flag...?
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Apr 07, 2018 02:03pm
The people from big province have destroyed the airline and now trying cosmetic changes.
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Apr 07, 2018 02:03pm
@Shakir Baakza on the belly of the aircraft.... look at the video
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Apr 07, 2018 02:06pm
@Shakir Baakza
Pakistan is written on the planes belly. cant be ignored when it flies.
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Apr 07, 2018 02:21pm
Lets see Markhor could help build image of a decaying airline. Country having blessed with fertile land of five rivers have lost all its biodiversity to the miserable planners. We will not find any other animal to represent the air line in future.
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Apr 07, 2018 02:47pm
@Shakir Baakza
Sorry to say your brother ...I think you didn't see name of Pakistan under aircraft .... Which would be visible from high altitude .... You can see in video
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Apr 07, 2018 02:50pm
Wrapping a rotten apple in gold foil is self-defeating and deceiving others. Whats needed is a change its management structure!
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Apr 07, 2018 02:53pm
“Great people” who stare at goats
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Apr 07, 2018 02:57pm
Oryx, national animal of State of Qatar, decorated the tail of Qatar Airways. New livery is similar except it is Markhor on the tail. It is not a stretch to visualize where the idea came from. In recent times another famous item had also come from Qatar? Did that fly? Change you must but it has much more to do with the fundamentals of doing business, who manages it and how. This is perhaps the only airline whose flight worthy plane got missing. How often its own staff have been caught for one violation of another? All want to see this carrier succeed, big times. For that to happen it must bring about fundamental changes throughout its structure which has to be purely merit based.
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Apr 07, 2018 02:57pm
Get rid of free loaders, reduce the number of employees only way to make airline profitable. Change of logo is mere cosmetic.
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Apr 07, 2018 03:17pm
Imagine Sardar Mehtab running and ruining. Pity the nation. Will vote again for the corrupt mafia led by illiterate feudels, disgraced mullahs and cruel industrialists.
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Apr 07, 2018 03:29pm
Hogwash, waste of more money and looks ridiculously overdone. Get rid of corrupt staff and make it productive.
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Apr 07, 2018 03:42pm
@Anti-Corruption_Pakistani what happens when this animal becomes extinct? Ah the irony of it all.
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Apr 07, 2018 03:58pm
PIA is a loss-making airlines.
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Apr 07, 2018 04:01pm
good attempt! Though the lettering could have been done more aesthetically!
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Apr 07, 2018 04:01pm
Is it just logo change. Corrupt governments and PIA unions responsible for the condition of national carrier at this time
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Apr 07, 2018 04:03pm
@tar Wont bring in a single rupee of extra revenue, rather unnecessary cost and who knows there will be a corruption in contracting. better to fix problems first.
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Apr 07, 2018 04:08pm
kindly improve the service.These additional expenditures will only burden the nation and its resources
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Apr 07, 2018 04:25pm
Excellent innovative ideas of PIA, transformed into eye-catching and head-turning reality. Keep it up and hang on tough.
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Apr 07, 2018 04:32pm
Good step but training PIA staff will help alot.
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Apr 07, 2018 04:42pm
With millions in daily operating losses, was this expensive makeover required at this juncture?
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Apr 07, 2018 04:43pm
My first comment at any news article.
Not even going to mention the issues with staff, management as everyone else is talking about it.
I have had just about enough of our incompetencies. The design looks nothing but a cheap knockoff from a certain airline which also carries their national animal logo but provides world class service.
The front looks terrible and busy without a flow. I am no artist but I wouldn’t pay anyone who came up with this design. Yet another few million Rupees gone to some favoured pockets.
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Apr 07, 2018 04:45pm
Very best of luck.
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Apr 07, 2018 05:11pm
Paint it over...coverup the defects...yep thats PIA
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Apr 07, 2018 05:22pm
As if a new paint job will save the dying company!
All cosmetic changes, But they dare not fire the 20,000 extra staff that is bleeding the airline.
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Apr 07, 2018 05:45pm
Hope it survives the turbulence.
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Apr 07, 2018 05:49pm
Looks good, will it help to lessen the financial burden on the airline. Will it increase its profitability and moreover how much extra cost it will have to change paint and all!!!!
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Apr 07, 2018 10:05pm
Looks very cool - all the best PIA !
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Apr 07, 2018 11:09pm
Once again, PIA proved their priorities are wrong.
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Apr 08, 2018 12:23am
Good move to rebranding the PIA. Change come from top therefore new look, revised commitments and revised vision is necessary.
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Apr 08, 2018 09:17am
I hope changes to services offered by PIA changes along with its LOGO. The two have to go together.
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Apr 08, 2018 11:13am
Beautiful look
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Apr 08, 2018 07:09pm
Need to change the planes and crew as well
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Apr 08, 2018 10:39pm
PIA will try but lets face it our passengers treat the airline and staff with disrepect, try using the toilet on a PIA flight 20 mins after take off you will get my meaning. We proper investment on a quality fleet, staff retraining and fines imposed on passengers for trashing the plane.
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Apr 08, 2018 10:41pm
I like it.
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Apr 09, 2018 01:37am
PIA rather focus on improving its sevices insread of wasting millions on useless compaigns
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Apr 09, 2018 10:40am
let's appreciate droplets of good work that have started to pour in rather than ranting about what happened in the past! If you can contribute positively, come up and post your ideas on PIA facebook page.
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Apr 09, 2018 11:32am
It has not been updated on PIA website though.
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Apr 09, 2018 12:28pm
PIA must update their Website....first
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Apr 09, 2018 12:47pm
This one is beautiful. Absolutely world class.
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Apr 09, 2018 08:16pm
By changing the outside.yes it is pleasing to the eye.But what about the inside.
Before cleaning the body from outside.One should clean their hearts inside.
Seats are broken,they do not recline.No monitors are working.If you call the air hostess.She replies write a letter.To whom
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