Pakistan

PIA’s 35 planes not cleared by CAA yet

Deadline for next year's air operator certificate is Jan 31

Aftab Khan September 13, 2023

Figures shared with the ECC revealed that if no action was taken, PIA’s debt and liabilities would jump to “Rs1.98 trillion and its annual losses will rise to Rs259 billion by 2030”. photo: Reuters

KARACHI:

A danger looms over the Pakistan International Airlines’ (PIA) flights as inspection of 35 of its planes by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has not yet been carried out.

The failure to conduct the inspection may jeopardise the issuance of the required certificate for next year's flights.

The CAA Flight Standards Directorate had imposed observations on technical problems of planes and crew training among other issues.

At the time the air operators’ certificate was issued this year, it was said to complete the inspections imposed by the CAA by December 2023.

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Along with the grounded planes, the aircraft flown abroad and by Pakistan Navy are also included in the inspection list.

The deadline for the next year's air operator certificate is January 31, 2024.

A list of aircraft under the heading of operations specifications has been issued by the CAA director of flight standards.

The list contains details of 12 Boeing 777, 17 Airbus A320 and six ATR planes of the airline.

The CAA has repeatedly asked the national flag carrier to have the inspections of these planes completed.

A total of 15 planes of the PIA are grounded, two are abroad while two are being used by another organisation of the country.

The federal government has prepared a major plan to run the PIA, which was drowning in debt, under a public-private partnership with foreign capital and restructuring the national carrier.

Under the PIA revival plan, a new holding company will be registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) and all the assets as well as liabilities of the national carrier will be transferred to it.

The PIA will be incorporated into the holding firm as a debt-free subsidiary company.

According to the framework, 40% of the shares will be sold in the international market to run the national airline under the public-private partnership mode and the management will also be outsourced.

It has also been decided to hire a foreign consultant to finalise the restructuring process in a transparent manner.

The framework prepared by the government will be completed in phases by 2025.

In the first phase, the airline will be separated from debt and losses by registering the holding company with the SECP.

In the second phase, the national airline will be restructured and run through the public-private partnership mode. Its shares will be sold as well.

According to the documents, the PIA suffered a loss of Rs110 billion in the one-and-a-half years of the last government.

The total loss of the PIA last year was Rs80 billion, which is expected to hit Rs112 billion after further increase this year.

The documents revealed that the annual loss of the PIA would reach Rs259 billion in 2030.

Because of the ban on the UK and European flights, the PIA suffered a collective loss of Rs215 billion.

The ban was also causing an annual loss of Rs71 billion to the national carrier.

The PIA landed in hot water in the wake of its flight PK-8303 crashing in Karachi on May 22, 2020, and the subsequent announcement by the then aviation minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan of the grounding of 262 airline pilots suspected of dodging their exams.