PIA commits to pay Rs100m daily to PSO for resumption of fuel supply

Pakistan International Airline (PIA) has pledged a daily payment of Rs 100 million to Pakistan State Oil (PSO) in order to address its pending dues issue, the 24NewsHD TV channel reported on Monday.  

This commitment follows PSO's requirement to clear its outstanding payments to resume jet fuel supply to the national flag carrier.

In accordance with this agreement, PSO has stipulated the resumption of fuel supply to PIA upon the daily settlement of Rs 100 million.

The PIA spokesperson said that the fuel will be supplied to the national airline upon payment of Rs 100 million daily.

However, PIA will inform the PSO to provide fuel to their aircrafts.

The aircrafts will get the fuel after approval from the national airline.

Furthermore, the PIA spokesperson revealed that the national aircraft carrier paid Rs 100 million to PSO online during today’s meeting.

Earlier, Pakistan State Oil (PSO) has suspended the fuel supply for domestic flights operated by PIA due to the national flag carrier’s failure to pay its dues.

This has resulted in several PIA planes being grounded, causing immense hardships for thousands of travellers who were stranded at various airports across the country.

PSO said that PIA’s non-payment of agreed-upon dues made it difficult for the company to supply fuel to the national flag carrier.

A PSO official from the fuel supply department said PSO had stopped supplying fuel to PIA for domestic flights from October 16.

He said that PSO had tried to facilitate the immediate payment of outstanding dues by providing fuel to the national airline under a new formula.

“Under this new formula, PSO and PIA had agreed that the payment for the new purchase of fuel by the airline would be made on time while payments of dues would be made under the previous policy.

“However, it seems that PIA is persistently violating the agreed-upon formula,” the official said.

According to PSO officials, the chief financial officer of PIA had promised to deposit Rs100 million last week, which has not been done yet.

It is estimated that PIA owes Rs2.64 billion to PSO.

According to the sources, PSO’s suspension of fuel supply to PIA has affected operations at airports in Multan, Sukkur and Gilgit, where PIA flights were cancelled due to a lack of fuel.

In addition to the financial issues affecting the airline’s operations, PIA has grounded several of its planes due to maintenance concerns amid financial struggles.

Currently, PIA’s flight operations are ongoing with 31 aircraft out of its fleet of 49 aircraft.