PIA's six-month loss amounts to over Rs25 billion

Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) incurred a loss of over Rs25 billion in the first six months of 2021, a 31.5% year-on-year decline after it reported a loss of Rs36.5 billion in the pandemic-ridden January-July period of 2020.

PIA, in its unconsolidated profit-and-loss statement sent to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Friday, also saw its revenue almost halved, from Rs51.5 billion in Jan-Jun 2020 to Rs27.6 billion in the same six-month period of 2021.

A major reversal helped the bottom-line figure as, after reporting a loss of Rs9.8 billion, PIA recorded an exchange gain of Rs1.32 billion.

Its finance costs were down from Rs17.1 billion to Rs12.75 billion in Jan-June 2021.

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The emergence of Covid-19 has been exceptionally brutal for some industries with the aviation sector, operating on lower margins already, bearing a huge brunt of the pandemic. Stringent measures taken by countries such as border closure, quarantine conditions to curb the spread of the novel virus have not helped the travel sector either.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) in its report has earlier said that it does not expect world air traffic to return to its pre-pandemic level before 2023. But in over 20 years, air traffic should almost double, from 4.5 billion passengers in 2019 to 8.5 billion in 2039.

Meanwhile, as per PIA's financials, loss from operations alone stood at Rs13.58 billion.