A PIA B777 has been impounded on court orders before departure at KL, because of default in lease payments. Any experienced professional CFO and CEO of a commercial airline operating on international sectors should have been aware of repercussions involved in international default and instead of contesting the matter in court should have managed by making partial payments. A default in lease can trigger a default with international lenders and any qualified aviation industry executive with experience is required to manage through skillful negotiations.

The aviation industry is facing a crisis and as long as Covid-19 pandemic is not curtailed, airlines have embarked on cutting operating costs. These are not times to embark on increasing the fleet and I fail to understand the commercial justifications on for acquisition of more aircraft on lease. Funds should be utilized to pay lease instalments for aircraft already in use, while making efforts to return utilised leased aircraft.

PIA has been restrained from using two B777 aircraft leased from Dublin-based AerCap in 2015, which sold this portfolio to Peregrine Aviation Co Ltd in 2018. The aircraft with manufacturer serial numbers 32716 and 32717 should never have been sent on international flights.

What more will it take for the federal government to understand that those at the helm in the Aviation Ministry, CAA Pakistan and PIA lack the capacity to handle the affairs of an airline, already in crisis? The EASA issue was mishandled by everybody involved. The Minister for Aviation must have been given this list of over 800 pilots employed by Pakistani and foreign airlines by CAA alone, which has this information. What were the motives, remains to be investigated? The Secretary Aviation should have briefed the Minister about the repercussions of making such an irresponsible statement in NA.

MALIK TARIQ ALI (Lahore)

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021