Matters settled in PIA and PSO, flights likely to return to normal soon

Karachi: Matters between PIA and PSO have been settled, as a result of which flights are likely to return to normal soon.

According to the sources, matters have been settled between the national airline company PIA and Pakistan State Oil (PSO) regarding fuel and payments, after which the supply of fuel to the national airline will start increasing gradually in the next few days. , due to which the schedule of the affected flights will begin to return to normal.

According to PIA spokesperson, PSO has extended the credit facility in view of the financial difficulties of the national airline. PSO increased PIA’s loan limit by Rs 50 crore. PSO sources say that PIA has already met its credit limit of Rs 15 billion. On October 27, it was decided to increase the credit limit in negotiations between the officials from both sides.

On the other hand, PIA’s schedule is still severely affected due to financial and fuel crisis, due to which 59 more domestic and foreign flights have been cancelled. The fuel problem linked to the financial crisis of the national airline has lasted for more than two weeks, resulting in 597 flights being grounded in the last 17 days.

It may be noted that the PIA administration has paid Rs 10 crore to the PSO on Friday afternoon. A list of 8 flights for fuel has been forwarded to PSO along with the above cash payment for oil. Today, Saturday (half day) and tomorrow (Sunday), due to non-payment in advance, a situation like last Sunday may arise.

Last Sunday, PIA’s flight operations were frozen for the first time since Covid-19 due to lack of advance payments and holidays. The daily domestic and international flight operations of PIA consist of 81 flights. According to the sources, after the ECC received 8 billion rupees last night, there are chances of improvement in the complex issue of departure of flights.