The Pakistan International Airline (PIA) operation is most likely to be halted again as the national flag carrier has not cleared its daily fuel dues.
As per the PIA-PSO pact, the national airline has to pay Rs100 million per day to Pakistan State Oil. So far it has paid Rs70 million.
According to sources in the PSO, the fuel supply may be suspended at any time.
The deepening financial crisis has landed the PIA in trouble.
Daily bookings have been brought to an all-time low while refund due to the cancellation of flights has been costing millions of rupees to the PIA.
The airline made yesterday’s payment of Rs100 million in three instalments.
In September, the PIA sought a Rs22.9 billion emergency bailout, which the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) rejected.
The ECC also turned down PIA’s request to defer monthly payments of Rs1.3 billion to FBR for Federal excise duty (FED) and Rs0.7 billion to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) for embarking charges.