LAHORE: The planes used for all Pakistan International Airline (PIA) flights from Lahore to London leave half empty, reportedly because they’re told to be on standby for the family of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif. According to sources requesting anonymity, the PIA is keeping half of the total seats of all its London-bound flights “reserved” just in case a VVIP family had to leave the country at any moment. As per the details, when a passenger tried to book a ticket in flight PK-757 that departed on August 5, he was told that the entire flight was booked and no seat was available, just until a few hours before the flight when the intending passenger was finally allowed to make a booking. After boarding, the passenger was shocked to see half of the plane empty. Upon asking, he was told by the flight crew “casually” that half of the seats in all London-bound PIA flights were reserved for Nawaz Sharif’s family just in case they had to leave. When Daily Times contacted PIA spokesman Mashhood Tajwar for comment, he categorically denied the report and said the flights were not full because “this is the off-season”. He said the bookings would start picking up again after August 15 ahead of Eid. Upon asking why the passengers were told the booking had been closed in the off-season, he said it was because of an automatic “Revenue Inventory Management System”, which starts dropping the reservations of passengers who earlier made the reservations but did not purchase the tickets as the flight time approached. At this point, Daily Times asked again if passengers could make reservations without making payments, the spokesman said, “Yes, this is how it usually happens.” He said the time limit up to when a passenger could make payment depended on the flight, seats and the time of booking. He said that oftentimes, agents overbook seats and the reservations are dropped if tickets are not purchased in 24-48 hours ahead of the flight. He said this was done using an automatic computer-run system. The PIA spokesman said that in such a case, the loss was compensated with fines from the agents who had booked the passengers making reservation without paying. When asked why the cabin crew were telling passengers that flights were empty because half the seats were reserved for the Sharif family, he jokingly said, “This is the problem we have been dealing with for a very long time. Our crewmembers like to cut the hands that feed them.” He said the cabin crew must have made that comment on their own, and the airline “does not endorse it”. He said it was possible that certain people might have made reservation of 20 seats and then never boarded the plane, adding that in such a case the airline still gets the revenue whether or not the passenger shows up. He said that 20 seats on one flight was possible, but completely denied the report of half of seats in every flight being reserved for the Sharif family. “The airline would be in a loss amounting to crores if this was the case, and PIA is not in a position of bearing such a loss,” he said, while dismissing the report and laughed it out. However, if true, it is unclear what made the Sharif family make such a drastic contingency planning, but making the national flag carrier bear the brunt needs some explanation. This is specially because newly sworn-in Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi also faces corruption allegations because of his involvement in the aviation industry, PIA and a private airline that he owns. The Sharif family might have taken this measure as a matter of urgency but the loss this is causing to the national carrier and inconvenience to passengers are beyond reparable. Published in Daily Times, August 8th 2017.