Those familiar with the politics of Pakistani aviation should know the Pakistani aviation market is not in the best condition.
But of all that, the national airline, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) is in the worst financial situation and always requires a huge injection of money from the government to keep it alive.
Pakistan's politicians regularly buy airline tickets from Gulf Airliners as they offer cheaper fares than PIA.
At other times the government members use their own planes for transport.
All this is at the expense of the tax payer as far as I know and at the same time the government is spending plenty of it's budget to keep PIA alive.
So that's the combined cost of government transport as well as keeping the national airline alive.
Instead of paying for two things, the Pakistani government should take advantage of PIA's charter service.
This provides the financial advantage of giving PIA a profit at the same time not having to pay the cost of government transport planes including fuel, maintenance and crew.
If chartering PIA planes can cover the cost giving the airline a sizable income and at the same time provide transport for the government which already has it's own share of costs, two birds can be killed with one stone.
The most advantageous type of charter is going on routes already served by PIA and allowing the return flight to carry on as a normal scheduled route.
As an example, prime minister Gilani traveled to Frankfurt for a conference using the Pakistani government's Airbus 310-300 (now part of the Pakistani Air force fleet).
Instead of using the Air Force plane, Gilani and his other government officials could have charted a PIA flight to Frankfurt and allowed the plane to return to Pakistan as a regular PIA flight.
Another example is Pakistani politicians flying to Saudi Arabia for Hajj or Umrah trips. They can charter flights from PIA and allow the flights to return to Pakistan, carrying regular passengers.
Some people may object that the travel of regular people may be disrupted/delayed due to politicians chartering PIA planes.
But when people look at how much of the national budget may be saved each year, it may change their minds.
The other thing is that passengers who cannot find a seat availability on a certain date because it's taken up have to wait patiently until the next available flight(s)- and they do so without complaining.
So why in this case would one complain? If politicians have a scheduled flight to a certain destination and the date announced a months in advance, people can book their tickets accordingly.
Routes not served by PIA can be served by the government owned aircraft or served by PIA planes which are not serving on regular passenger flights, such as the Boeing 747s which are saved for hajj or high season travel.
Perhaps my proposal is not achievable and does not save costs, but as far as I can see it's a completely realistic and profitable idea.
And if it's not, then I'm sure there are other ideas to give PIA a revenue without spending so much from the national budget.
