Airline told to pay off money owed if it wants to fly to Saudi Arabia

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Written by Linda Hohnholz

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Saudi Arabia’s aviation authorities have warned Pakistan’s national flag carrier, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), that all their flights will be cancelled if outstand

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Saudi Arabia’s aviation authorities have warned Pakistan’s national flag carrier, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), that all their flights will be cancelled if outstanding airport usage fees are not paid by April 17, a senior PIA official said.

Saudi General Authority for Civil Aviation Authority (GACA) has issued a “final” notice to the PIA to pay off their unpaid dues before the deadline, otherwise, all PIA flights to Saudi Arabia would be cancelled. The official, who requesting anonymity, added that similar notices had been issued to the PIA in the recent past.

Mashood Tajwar, a spokesman for PIA downplayed the Saudi warning, saying there was no chance of halting flights. “PIA provides billions of Rupees (Pakistani currency) business to Saudi civil aviation. They (GACA) will not halt the PIA flights”, Tajwar told AA. He denied that the PIA had received any final notice from the Saudi aviation authorities, but admitted that the airlines had outstanding debts to the Saudi authorities. “These fees are part of the business.”

Pakistan’s airline, once touted as one of the best airlines in Asia, is currently facing an annual loss of $305 million, raising its total losses to $1.78 billion.

In September 2013, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif announced the privatization of 26 per cent of the shares of the airlines, which the Pakistani government believes is the only way to save the national flag carrier from total collapse.

The government has already injected over $110 million dollars of equity into PIA in 2014 alone, and announced the further investment of $40 million.

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Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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