PIA suffers $433M blow on loss-making routes

karachi — Pakistan International Airlines Corporation (PIA), the national flag carrier of Pakistan, posted a net loss of $433 million for 2016, a jump of 36 per cent over the loss of $310 million incurred in the previous year, a media report said.

The state-run carrier’s accumulated losses continued to soar mainly due to non-stop flights on several loss-making routes, according to a bourse filing. PIA continued to fly on several loss-making routes to Europe and the US.

According to a stock filing on Friday, the company’s revenue was down 2 per cent to Rs89 billion from Rs91 billion a year ago.

The airline also released financial figures for January-March. It posted a net loss of Rs11 billion in the three-month period, up 91 per cent from Rs6 billion in the similar quarter of the earlier year, Dawn reported.

Revenues for the two comparable quarters remained almost flat. The loss from operations in the latest quarter jumped to Rs7.71 billion from Rs2.65 billion a year ago due to increase in aircraft fuel costs that amounted to Rs8 billion in January-March.

But the bottom line was hit mainly by an unexplained item marked as “other costs”. It amounted to Rs20 billion for the quarter, up from Rs18 billion a year ago.

According to the Tribune, PIA has decided in principle to temporarily suspend flights to and from New York, which alone was causing a loss of Rs2.25 billion per year, said Adviser to Prime Minister on Aviation Sardar Mehtab Ahmed Khan recently.