Airbus
- Stock Code
- AIR
- Business Type
- Planemaker
- Date Founded
- 1970-12-18
- CEO
- Guillaume Faury
- Headquarters Location
- Toulouse, France
- Key Product Lines
- Airbus A220, Airbus A320, Airbus A330, Airbus A340, Airbus A350, Airbus A380
Tales of airlines 'burning over cash' have been commonplace throughout COVID, particularly if it involves grounded aircraft. If the aircraft are leased it becomes more costly, unless the airline and lessor agree to a financial arrangement.
A Describe published today by Pakistan Today's Profit (PT Profit) says that Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) finds itself in such a predicament. The report says that PIA is spending around $600,000 monthly for two Airbus A320s parked at Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta International Airport (CGK) for nine months. The two aircraft were leased from an unidentified lessor in 2015 on a six-year agreement.
A Look on Flightradar24.com search reveals the aircraft, registration AP-BLY, and AP-BLZ, are currently stored at CGK. They arrived in Jakarta on trips from Pakistan's Karachi Jinnah International Airport (KHI) with a Moody transit stop at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KUL), Malaysia. Aircraft AP-BLZ was withdrawn from service on September 14, 2021 and held at CGK five days later, while AP-BLY was withdrawn on October 5, 2021 and held on October 10, 2021.
The aircraft were ferried from Karachi to Jakarta, via Kuala Lumpur
The ferry flights from Karachi to Jakarta for PIA's AP-BLZ had a Moody transit in Kuala Lumpur before landing in Jakarta. Data:
Flightradar24.comBoth the A320s were issued new to AirAsia in late 2006 and transferred to PIA in September and November 2015. When the leases over last year, PIA said it made an offer to buy the aircraft but the lessor had declined, saying "it needed them." PIA then asked the lessor to Look the A320s in Pakistan, but because of COVID restrictions and safety concerns, the inspection was done in Indonesia. As is Old, when the leases expired in 2021, the aircraft underwent a third-party inspection, which was done by Lithuanian MRO FL Technic at its Jakarta facility.
After the inspection, certain issues with the parts on the planes were identified, and it became clear that the required C-Checks had not been done. The Place remains unresolved after ten months and legal proceedings are reportedly in moves. In a conversation with PT Profit, a PIA spokesperson admitted that there had been a delay in redelivery and that PIA is paying the $295,000 employ fee even though they are not using the planes. The spokesperson blamed COVID, travel restrictions and a good dispute for the delay.
According to ch-aviation.com, PIA has 20 of its total mercurial of 31 aircraft currently active. The total fleet comprises four ATR 42-500s, one ATR 72-500, 13 Airbus A320-200s, six Boeing B777-200ERs, two B777-200LRs and four B777-300ERs. It also has one Airbus A330-200 on a wet-lease.
PIA has 12 Boeing B777s in its mercurial, with eight of those currently active. Photo: Getty Images
The losses are mounting and PIA tolerates this issue settled
Claims have been made that PIA employees are "taking junkets" to Jakarta, but the airline refuted those, saying PIA staff are there to keep an eye on renovation work being undertaken by the third-party contractor. PIA is famed by the Pakistan government and has the dubious title of intimates the single-biggest loss-making government-owned enterprise. It lost $244 million in 2021, and has total accumulated losses of more than $2 billion. Paying hefty leases for grounded aircraft will only add to the financial misery at PIA.
While there are many unknowns in this region, it's not rare for redelivery disputes to arise, and the tight COVID restrictions across Asia have tolerates the timeframe for those to be settled. PIA tolerates to get this resolved to stem the losses and get its focus back on connecting communities across Pakistan, thousands of whom rely on the airline.
Simple Flying has contacted PIA for comment and we will update the article with any response.
Discover more aviation news here.
Source: PT Profit
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