Security problems halting the growth of Pakistan’s aviation, says Feroze Jamall

Security problems halting the growth of Pakistan’s aviation, says
Feroze Jamall

Wednesday, March 21, 2012: Feroze Jamall, Country manager Cathay Pacific has said that Pakistan has huge potential for growth but the countries progress has been halted by lack of security.

Jamall asserts that foreign players would like to invest in Pakistan but they decide against it as profits margins in the country are shrinking.

Cathy Pacific – a Hong Kong based private airline – has been operating in Pakistan for 11 years now. The airline operates from Karachi and is keen to expand operations to Lahore and Islamabad, among other destinations in the country;
but there are problems that first need to be redressed.

According to Jamall, the government must rationalise the high rates of taxes on the aviation industry in order for it to flourish. To the contrary, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) increased different airport taxes in January
this year, which irked both national and international airlines operating in Pakistan:

“Although airlines eventually pass on such a price increase to customers, it definitely hits profit margins as well.” says Jamall, “If cost of operations continue to increase like this, a time will come when the domestic market
will become less attractive to foreign airlines.”

There are also some issues with bureaucratic procedures. Cathy Pacific flies to 30 cities of China. Though a lot of Pakistanis travel to the country, the carrier has not been able to cater to many Pakistani passengers. This is
not due to its own limitations, but because a lot of Pakistani travellers fail to obtain a transit visa for Hong Kong; a legal requirement for anyone stopping over in the city-state en route to China, Malaysia or the Far East. More Pakistani travellers can
visit the Asia Pacific region if the government resolves these visa issues, Jamall says.

Replying to a question, he said that Cathy Pacific did not really benefit from the departure of its rival – Malaysian Airlines – from Pakistan.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=16912

Posted by Wajahat Javed on Mar 23 2012. Filed under Business, Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry