In Karachi on Wednesday, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) had to cancel 24 domestic and international flights due to a limited fuel supply from Pakistan State Oil (PSO). Only 26 of PIA’s scheduled flights took off that day. According to official sources, PIA paid PSO Rs150 million for fueling these 26 flights on that day. The previous day, PSO had supplied fuel for just 13 PIA flights, consisting of 10 international and 3 domestic routes, after receiving Rs125 million in payment.
Over the last two days, on October 17 and 18, PIA canceled 44 flights, affecting approximately 6,000 passengers. Among the affected travelers, 4,000 were on international routes, and 2,000 were passengers on domestic flights. PIA, a state-run airline long plagued by financial mismanagement, has been grappling with a severe financial crisis, exacerbated by Pakistan’s balance of payments crisis due to mounting debt obligations.
Athar Awan, a deputy spokesman for PIA, told AFP that these flight cancellations were primarily due to the unavailability of fuel. An anonymous PIA official stated that the disruption in fuel supply resulted from delayed payments to PSO due to the airline’s financial difficulties.
Pakistan’s economy has been mired in decades of mismanagement and instability, prompting the country to seek a bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) this year to avoid default. An anonymous senior PSO official mentioned that the fuel supplier was providing fuel only for flights prioritized by PIA.
This week, PIA agreed to pay PSO Rs100 million daily to clear its outstanding dues. In return for a payment of Rs150 million on Wednesday, PSO refueled 26 flights. PIA issued a statement indicating that it expected to resume normal service from Thursday by utilizing its own resources, without providing further details.
Bloomberg had previously reported that PIA’s liabilities stood at Rs743 billion (approximately $2.5 billion), exceeding its total assets by five times. As reported by The Express Tribune on October 14, PIA sought additional borrowing of over Rs7 billion from banks to address concerns of potential partial or complete suspension of flight operations due to its severe financial crisis. The airline’s letter to the Aviation Division requested an immediate loan of over Rs7 billion from banks and noted that the government of Pakistan’s guarantee included the option for the airline to secure a loan of Rs7.5 billion.
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