PIA Confirms Its Not Selling the Roosevelt Hotel in the US

The Roosevelt Hotel, located at the corner of 45th Street and Madison Avenue, in the heart of Midtown Manhattan New York, was completed in 1924 and is named in honor of former US President Theodore Roosevelt. The hotel was bought by Pakistan International Airlines back in 2005.

In 2007, the government had put it up for sale at a price of $1 billion but received a cold response over it due to the change in the government and the collapse in the real estate prices in US. In 2011, the hotel was then taken off the market.

There were reports that the hotel is being put up for sale again. However, PIA has no such plans to sell the Roosevelt hotel anytime soon, the parliament panel was informed on Wednesday.

A meeting of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Parliamentary Affairs was conducted by its chairperson Dr. Shezra Mansab Ali Khan Kharal. The discussion mainly rolled around the abrupt discontinuation of PIA flights to and from New York and other issues related to it.

The Aviation Secretary and acting Chairman of PIA, Irfan Elahi was asked by Mian Tariq Mehmood to tell the committee the reason why the  New York operations got suspended.

He then told that PIA is has seen Rs. 1.5 billion in losses from New York operations for more than 10 years.

Irfan objected to Mehmood’s statement of PIA selling the Roosevelt hotel. He said that they had no such plans.

Annoyance prevailed in the meeting due to the atrocious performance of the national airlines. The management was strictly directed to improve its standards.

Mehmood informed after the meeting that the committee directed the management of PIA to submit complete details of the Roosevelt hotel.

Irfan Elahi told the local media that PIA had been facing challenges and was unable to compete with its competitors like Gulf, Turkish and Qatar airlines. “After closing our New York operations, we are focusing on profit-earning routes, such as Saudi Arabia,” he said.

He also told that they are working on improving flight operations for China and France.

Via Dawn

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