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Air Vice Marshal Farooq
Umar was appointed Managing Director PIA in March 1993 and
served the airline in that capacity till 1996. Under his tenure PIA launched Air
Safari flight from Islamabad to Pakistan's mountainous region in
the north where some of world's tallest peaks are located. Also
under his leadership PIA started flights to Sharjah, Al-Ain,
Fujairah and Ras Al Khaimah thus connecting Pakistan with six
different cities in United Arab Emirates, the two other UAE cities
served by the airline at that time were Dubai and Abu
Dhabi. The airline also launched Boeing 737-300 jet service from Pasni
to Sharjah under Umar's management. During his tenure Boeing 737-300
jet flights to Rahim Yar Khan were also launched and for the first time
in Pakistan's history PIA introduced scheduled passenger
flight with Twin Otter aircraft from Peshawar to Parachinar
located in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). In 1995,
PIA under Umar's guidance, introduced Mi-17 helicopter scheduled
flights service for Abbottabad, Bhurban, Sialkot and Peshawar.
Pakistan and Central Asia were also air-linked with PIA flights
from Karachi and Islamabad to Ashkabad in Turkmenistan, Tashkent
in Uzbekistan, Almaty in Kazhakstan and Baku in Azerbaijan. Umar a
veteran fighter-pilot and accomplished sportsman, was briefly
Managing Director of PIA's would-be rival Shaheen Air before
being appointed to PIA job. He earned the respect of many staff,
who appreciated the disdain for protocol which he had shown
during a programme of low-key, unannounced, travels through PIA
network. Umar called it "management by walking around".
Unsurprisingly, Umar took a keen interest in PIA's flight
operations and one of his first actions was to commission a
flight safety "audit" from Flight Safety International of the
USA and then to introduce Continental Airlines cockpit-resource
management training |
