PIA Holding Co., the national airline of Pakistan, is set to report its first annual profit in more than two decades, ahead of plans to sell the national carrier, reported Bloomberg on Tuesday.
According to the report, the airline achieved earnings per share of Rs5.01 in the year ended December 2024, marking its first profitable year since 2003, said Bloomberg citing audited financial statements seen by the international media outlet.
The result will be submitted to the airline’s board for approval before it is released publicly, it said.
As per the report, PIA’s operational gains had previously been eroded by the substantial debt servicing burden from the mounting losses.
“PIA has been striving for operational profitability for the past three years by implementing reforms that include reducing its workforce by almost 30%, closing of unprofitable routes and improved fleet utilization,” it said.
Last month, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif informed the National Assembly that the cash-starved PIA had initiated a financial restructuring process aimed at tackling its ongoing problem of persistent business losses.
In a written response to an inquiry, he stated that the restructuring involved removing the bank debt of Rs268.7 billion, the government’s debt of Rs170 billion, legacy operating liabilities totalling Rs188.3 billion, and employee liabilities amounting to Rs44 billion from the corporation’s financial records, along with non-core assets valued at Rs26 billion.
Consequently, the negative equity saw a remarkable drop from Rs698 billion to Rs45 billion by April 2024, reported Business Recorder.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg reported that after a failed bid to sell PIA last year, the government is making another attempt, with initial bids due this month.
To make the sale more attractive, Pakistan transferred about 3/4 of the airline’s debt to government books. It has now removed all the debt, and the companies that participated earlier have shown renewed interest, Usman Bajwa, the secretary at the privatization commission, said in February.
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