The national flag carrier, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), remained grounded on Sunday after it cancelled 43 international and 29 domestic flights because of unavailability of fuel for the aircraft, PIA sources said.

The PIA takes fuel from the Pakistan State Oil (PSO). However, during the past few weeks both these public sector utilities remained at odds over the supplies. According to the sources, the situation become serious as the PIA’s air operations came to a standstill.

The flights cancellation had been a problem for the PIA for past few days, but the number rise abnormally high on Sunday. Also for the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic, it was witnessed that flight crew reported for duty but the planes remained grounded.

“A total of 72 domestic and foreign flights were affected. In just one day, the national airline sustained a loss of Rs700 million due to inoperability of its flights,” a source told The Express Tribune. He added that the lack of contacts between the top managements of the PIA and the PSO was also witnessed.

The current payment dispute between the PIA and the PSO emanated from a recent decision of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) that assured the airline of payment of Rs1.8 billion for the revival of its frozen accounts. However, the airlines management could not benefit from the facility.

Later a standard operating procedure (SOP) was agreed under which, the PIA would pay to the PSO in advance on a daily basis for the fuel. Accordingly, the PIA paid Rs100 million on Monday, Rs125 million on Tuesday, Rs150 million on Wednesday, Rs155 million on Thursday and Rs220 million on Friday.

On Sunday, a tense situation arose over the fuel payments after the PIA consumed it daily limit. The sources said that from Saturday night to Sunday morning, PIA operated four flights. It bought fuel worth Rs40 million for Toronto flight, Rs20 million for Beijing and Rs30 million for Istanbul and Kuala Lumpur.

The PIA administration had paid Rs220 million to the PSO on Friday for its operation over one and a half days. However, the credit limit available to the national flag carrier was too little, which led to a crisis-like situation, the sources said.

From that credit limit, the PIA operated four flights from Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad and Multan airports to Jeddah and Riyadh, taking fuel worth Rs80-90 million. This raised the total number of PIA flights taking off for different destinations on Sunday to nine.

Since Sunday was a closed holiday; there was clearly a lack of communication among the top managements of the PIA and the PSO as well as the civil aviation ministry to break the impasse. “This also contributed to paralysing air operations,” the source added.

“Overall, 72 international and domestic flights of the PIA have been affected due to this situation and as a result, around 10,000 passengers could not travel. The airline suffered a loss of Rs700 million in a single day because of the massive cancellation of its flights,” the PIA source revealed.

A PIA spokesperson told The Express Tribune, that the flight operations had been partially restored as “five flights from different cities of the country were operated in Sunday evening. “The partial restoration of the flights was made possible by the efforts of the PIA management,” he said.

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According to the PIA spokesperson, necessary measures were being taken in the wake of the current financial crisis facing the national flag carrier. “There are also contacts with the PSO administration, and the aviation ministry has been requested to play it role to normalise the air operations,” he added.

When contacted a spokesperson for the PSO said that the fuel supply to the PIA had not been stopped. He stressed that the fuel supply to the airline continued for the flights the airlines chose to operate, adding that during the last 36 hours, fuel was given for 64 flights.

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“PIA itself-prioritises its flights,” the spokesperson told The Express Tribune. “Under the current mechanism agreed between the PSO and the PIA, the PIA sends a list of flights to the PSO on a daily basis along with the payment for the fuel. The PSO is fuelling the flights as per the list sent by the PIA.”

According to the PSO spokesperson, the PIA paid Rs125 million the other day, and since then fuel was provided for 64 flights, including five flights, which were fuelled between noon Saturday till 10am Sunday.