ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has decided to increase the fares for Umrah up to Rs2,000 ($23,4990). The PIA decided to raise the fares for both Haj and Umrah. After the increase, Rs69,080 ($811,655) would be charged as Umrah fare, said an official. After six percent increase, the Haj package fare has been gone from Rs100,000 to Rs106,000 ($1,245.45) and short term Haj fare has been enhanced from Rs120,000 to Rs1,27000 ($1,492.19). The PIA devised a plan to increase Umrah fares after every two weeks due to the increasing number of passengers. The official said that the PIA is constrained to take this measure in view of the increase in the oil prices. He said the federal government has been briefed about this step. He assured that the fares would be reduced in proportion to the cut in the oil prices. He said the increase would enable the PIA to overcome the losses it might have suffered in the Umra and Haj operations. PIA has filed an appeal in the Supreme Court against Competition Commission of Pakistan's order of imposing a fine of Rs10 million on the national flag carrier for increasing Haj fares in 2008. The petition also calls in question the status of the chairman and all employees of the Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) as the appointments were made under the old ordinance, saying that since no fresh appointments have been made under the new ordinance, any orders passed by them (CCP officials) are unconstitutional. In relation to the increase of fares, the counsel submitted that PIA was only carrying out its duties as national carrier and has been incurring losses for the last many years on Haj flights, and as such the imposition of a fine was unwarranted and illegal. It is further submitted that the fare increase could not be attributed to PIA alone because it was a well-known fact that there was an unprecedented hike in crude oil prices during 2008, which had a corresponding effect on airfares, as oil was the biggest cost factor for an airline. Furthermore, it has been submitted that PIA has to bear extra costs of operating these flights not to speak of the significant opportunity cost when the organization could be flying its planes on more lucrative routes.
