PIA Cancels Dozens of Flights in Two Days Due To Severe Fuel Shortage

Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), facing financial difficulties, was compelled to cancel a combined total of 24 domestic and international flights due to a limited fuel supply from Pakistan State Oil (PSO). Only 26 of PIA’s scheduled flights managed to depart on that day.

Official sources revealed that on that Wednesday, PIA disbursed Rs150 million to PSO to fuel these 26 flights. A day earlier, on Tuesday, PSO had supplied fuel for just 13 PIA flights, which included 10 international and 3 domestic routes, in exchange for a payment of Rs125 million.

Over the past two days, on October 17 and 18, a total of 44 flights operated by the national flag carrier had to be canceled, adversely affecting around 6,000 passengers. Among them, 4,000 were international travelers, while 2,000 were passengers on domestic routes.

The state-owned PIA, often criticized for its excessive size and poor management, has been grappling with dwindling funds as the government faces a balance of payments crisis, primarily due to crippling debt repayments.

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Athar Awan, a deputy spokesperson for PIA, informed AFP that these flight disruptions were “attributable to the unavailability of fuel.” An anonymous PIA official stated, “The reason for the fuel supply disruption is the delayed payment of dues because PIA is currently in a financial crisis and unable to settle its obligations to PSO on time.”

Decades of mismanagement and instability have cast a shadow over Pakistan’s economy, and this year, Islamabad was compelled to secure another bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to avoid a financial collapse.

An anonymous senior official at PSO noted that the state-run fuel supplier was “only providing fuel for flights that PIA has given priority.” This week, PIA agreed to pay Rs100 million daily to the oil company to settle its outstanding dues, as confirmed by the PSO official. The official added, “On Wednesday, PSO received a payment of Rs150 million in return, and 26 flights were refueled.”

In a statement, PIA expressed its expectation that regular services would resume from Thursday following the settlement of fuel expenses “from its internal resources.” The airline did not furnish further details.

Bloomberg previously reported that PIA’s liabilities amounted to Rs743 billion (approximately $2.5 billion), surpassing its total assets by five times.

According to a report by The Express Tribune on October 14, PIA sought to obtain additional loans exceeding Rs7 billion from banks due to concerns about the potential partial or complete suspension of its flight operations caused by a severe financial crisis. The report mentioned that PIA had written to the Aviation Division, seeking an immediate loan of over Rs7 billion from banks, with the government of Pakistan providing a guarantee for the airline to secure a loan of Rs7.5 billion.