Islamabad (Dec 31, 2020): With the last sun setting on a turmulous year for the whole world, PIA management formally closed receiving the Voluntary separation scheme, or VSS for short, applications and till the filing of this report was tallying the total count and generating final settlement and release letters. The final count as of at the time of reporting had just touched 2000 figure with nearly a thousand release letters already issued. The scheme which was launched on December 7, 2020 had validity of two weeks, but its deadline was extended first till December 28th and then finally till December 31st. Nearly all the departments had iterations which included those from airport services, flight services and commercial. PIA Spokesperson speaking on the occasion added that reducing work force through an honourable separation scheme on an attractive package was instrumental in the execution of our business plan and we appreciate the support of the government and other stake holders for their support. He said the response was very encouraging and we reduced nearly twenty percent of our regular workforce. He further added that PIA would save around PKR 2.5 billion from these iterations and the payback on investment would be two years.