PIA grounds half of fleet as financial crunch bites

ISLAMABAD – The national carrier of Pakistan has been forced to stay afloat with only half of its aircraft in operation, it emerged on Thursday.

As far as the figures are concerned, the national flag carrier recently grounded 14 aircraft as the financial woes worsened which prevented it from buying necessary spare parts.

Currently, the operational fleet of the carrier comprises six Boeing 777 wide-body twin-engine airplanes, eight Airbus A320 narrow-body jets for short/medium haul routes, and one ATR aircraft, Dawn News reported.

The carrier which was once seen as a success story by giants like Emirates is also struggling after two of its aircraft were stranded in Indonesia. In a positive development, one of these aircraft was retrieved after the carrier settled the matter for $13 million and negotiated with the authorities in Indonesia.

The basic reason behind the grounding of planes is the inability to buy spare parts without which the planes can’t operate.

What exacerbates the situation is the poor visibility due to dense fog which is blanketing parts of Punjab nowadays and the condition is expected to continue for a few more days.

The caretaker regime has already announced to privatize the loss-making Pakistan International Airlines for which a consultant has also been hired. The bone of contention at the moment is the outstanding liabilities of the entity though experts opine that they should be settled through the proceeds of the privatisation.

Meanwhile, the former privatisation minister, Muhammad Zubair alleged former Finance Minister Ishaq Dar for not privatising Pakistan International Airlines when Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz was in power.

The government has also introduced legislative measures to sell state entities through direct negotiations. In this regard, the Privatisation Commission has introduced new rules as well to help fast-track the sale of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA).

The privatisation ministry has announced that the board had approved draft of the Privatisation Commission (Government to Government Agreement Mode – Manner and Procedure) Rules, 2023.