On Wednesday (18th October), Pakistan’s national carrier PIA was forced to cancel all its flights due to a shortage of fuel. As per a report by Dawn, the non-payment of dues and certain ‘operational’ issues have hit their national air carrier.
The non-availability of fuel has continued to affect the flight operations of the PIA, forcing the loss-making state-owned entity to cancel at least 24 flights (11 international and 13 domestic) and delay 12 others on Tuesday (17th October).
Additionally, the PIA also cancelled over two dozen flights including 16 international and eight domestic flights for Wednesday (18th October) while a lot of other flights are expected to suffer delays.
A PIA spokesman announced that due to a limited fuel supply for PIA aircraft on a daily basis and for operational reasons, the flights were cancelled while the departure of some flights had been rescheduled.
Apart from the domestic flights, PIA also cancelled flights that were scheduled to fly to Dubai, Muscat, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, and Kuwait. However, the PIA officials added that they were trying to accommodate passengers on alternate flights and urged them to contact the PIA call centre, PIA offices, or their travel agent before arriving at the airport.
The fuel supply for PIA aircraft has been severely restricted as Pakistan State Oil (PSO), a government-owned entity, suspended its supplies over unpaid dues.
Pakistan govt turns down PKR 23 billion aid to struggling PIA
The loss-making national carrier, PIA was already on the brink of collapse due to accumulated debts and the non-availability of fuel and flight cancellation has made the future of the airline uncertain.
Earlier, the Pakistani government refused to grant PKR 23 billion in support for operational expenses to PIA, despite requests by their national airline. To cover the cost of fuel supplied by PSO, PIA needs to make daily payments of Rs 100 million.
However, the airline hasn’t met PSO’s requirement for upfront cash payments, forcing the national carrier to ground dozens of its domestic and international flights. This comes at a time when Pakistan is facing its worst economic crisis and Inflation in the country touching a record high of 21.3%.