PIA losses touch Rs 2 billion per month, accumulative loans cross Rs 400 billions
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ISLAMABAD - Pakistan International Airlines has continued to incur losses to the national exchequer to the extent of Rs 2 billion per Month, media has reported.
Due to increase in oil prices and depreciation of rupee, operating cost of Pakistan International Airline (PIA) has increased.
The airline is incurring a loss of Rs 2 billion per month, said Secretary Aviation and acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) PIA Saqib Aziz.
“The accumulative loans/guarantees of the national airlines crossed Rs 400 billion and due to financial crunch, PIA has yet to pay salary to employees”, said Secretary Aviation while briefing the Senate Standing Committee on Aviation which met with Mushahid Ullah Khan in the chair here on Wednesday.
Aziz said that the government has taken notice of officials’ involvement in smuggling and money laundering at airports and constituted a high level committee to probe the matter and present recommendations for controlling such activities. The committee is chaired by Secretary Interior while Secretary Aviation, CBR and ASF officials are the members of the committee.
The committee was further informed that currently PIA has a fleet of 33 aircraft, with 5 of them being grounded for general maintenance. PIA has around 16500 employees with 450 per aircraft ratio. It also continues to spend around 18 percent of its revenue on its employees.
